Christ  in  the 


Industries 


/^x 


Christ  in  the 
Industries 


BY 

WILLIAM  RILEY  HALSTEAD 

Author  of  "  Civil  and  Religious  Forces,"  "  Life 
on  a  Backwoods  Farm,"  Etc. 


CINCINNATI  :  CURTS  &  JENNINGS 
NEW   YORK:    EATON   &    MAINS 


COPYRIGHT,  1898,  BY 
CURTS   i    JENNINGS 


Introduction 


THE  reader  must  understand  the  scope  of  this 
little  book.  It  is  not  written  for  the  specialist. 
It  is  a  brief  survey  of  the  industrial  field  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  Christian  believer.  It  is 
suggestive,  and  not  exhaustive.  It  is  written  for 
busy  people,  who  have  no  time  for  an  extended 
treatise,  and  perhaps  no  tastes  for  the  details  of 
sociological  study,  and  yet  would  like  to  keep 
abreast  of  modern  movements,  and  of  the  new 
applications  of  Christian  thought. 

If  Christ  is  the  Savior  of  the  personal  life  as 
related  to  eternity,  he  is  also  the  Savior  of  that 
life  as  related  to  society;  and  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  whole  of  a  thing!'  includes  all 

o 

of  its  parts.     If  Christ  is  a  necessity  in  restor- 
ing order  and  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  race 
toward  God,  he  is  a  necessity  for  the  world  and 
3 


2084902 


Introduction 


for  man.  He  could  not  be  vital  to  the  individ- 
ual, and  of  no  use  to  society. 

The  world  to-day  is  attracted  by  its  outside 
life.  It  is  enamored  of  the  objective.  Great 
interest  is  taken  in  the  outward  forms  which  art 
and  science  and  law  and  government  are  taking 
on  themselves.  It  is  popular  to  be  confident 
about  the  things  we  have  builded.  It  is  a  sign 
of  wisdom  to  magnify  the  wood,  the  hay,  the 
stubble;  and  a  sign  of  ignorance  to  doubt  the 
self-restoration  of  any  of  these,  if  they  should 
take  fire.  The  rage  is  to  tabulate  a  large  num- 
ber of  outside  facts.  We  draw  geographical 
lines.  We  study  the  influence  of  climate.  We 
analyze  the  mixture  of  race  blood.  We  make 
a  scientific  study  of  tendencies. 

We  have  statistics  of  the  depressed  classes, 
and  of  criminals,  and  of  other  collective  facts, 
until  our  array  of  figures  stares  at  us  and  we 
stare  at  them.  We  have  sociological  clubs, 
where  we  talk  learnedly.  In  business,  we  are 
interested  in  railroads,  and  tariff  reform,  and  ed- 
ucation, and  sanitation,  and  invention,  and  ma- 


Introduction 


terial  developments.  We  deify  forces  and  phe- 
nomena and  laws.  We  work  with  might  and 
main  on  the  surroundings. 

The  achievements  of  this  opulent  age  have 
induced  us  to  over-magnify  them,  and  to  cast 
ourselves  down  upon  them,  and  there  has  been 
a  break  between  it  all  and  the  inmost  spirit  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ.  The  gospel  in  its  first 
sources  of  power  works  on  the  man.  It  magni- 
fies the  personal  soul.  It  does  not  forget  the  hu- 
man heart,  with  its  undying  spiritual  impulses, 
and  with  its  capacities  for  sorrow  and  death  and 
hell.  The  great  ailment  of  the  world  is  that  it 
is  sick  at  heart  of  sin ;  and  sin  is  never  abstract 
or  corporate.  We  talk  of  this  wicked  age, 
and  of  these  evil  times.  Satan  is  not  in  this 
age, — he  is  in  the  men  and  women  hereabout. 
Society  is  purified  and  made  better  as  its  men 
and  women  are  made  better.  Institutions  are 
of  great  value ;  but  when  they  are  strong  and 
unshaken,  we  may  depend  upon  it,  the  charac- 
ter behind  them  has  strength  also.  Character- 
building  and  character-keeping,  to  the  end  that 


Introduction 


society  may  be  salted,  is  slow  work,  but  it  is 
of  the  highest  quality  and  of  finest  temper. 
The  orators  may  have  visions,  and  they  may 
not  have  the  virtue  to  engage  in  a  thankless 
task.  A  mother  in  an  out-township  who  trains 
her  children,  has  no  visions  of  a  transformed 
human  society ;  but  her  work  is  of  the  stuff  to 
make  it  possible  for  the  orators  to  have  the 
visions.  They  talk  about  it;  she  brings  it  to 
pass.  She  trains  lives  to  know  what  govern- 
ment is,  and  to  give  obedience  to  righteous 
law.  She  is  God's  unknown  builder-worm. 

With  a  perfectly  safe  imagination  we  may 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  all  punitive  re- 
straints will  be  superfluous;  when  poverty  will 
be  practically  unknown ;  when  the  evils  which 
now  afflict  will  be  done  away ;  and  millennial 
peace  will  spread  over  the  earth.  But  an  abso- 
lutely essential  element  of  this  splendid  picture 
is  a  renewed  and  regenerated  human  nature, 
and  that  to  a  point  beyond  all  criminal  dispo- 
sitions. 

W.  R.  H. 

LINCOLN,  NEBRASKA,  June,  i8gS. 


Contents 


CHAPTER  I 

PACK 

1.  THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR        _____        9 

Labor  Essential  to  Character 
Common  Toil — Its  Social  Products 
The  New  Age  of  Equality 
The  Day  of  Achievement  is  a  Work-day 

CHAPTER  II 

2.  SOCIAL  TRANSFORMATIONS  33 

Religion  and  Bread 

The  Supremacy  of  Force 

Commercial  Tyranny 

The  New  Day  of  Competitive  Morals 

CHAPTER  III 

3.  SOME  FRIENDS  OF  LABOR     _____      59 

The  School  of  Thrift 

The  Home 

Labor  Organizations 

The  Honorable  Employer 

The  Spirit  of  Democracy 

Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Order 

Social  Specialization 

7 


8  Contents 

CHAPTER  IV 

PAGE 

4.  INDUSTRIAL  PROBLEMS  _____      95 

Radical  Socialism 

Early  American  Socialism 

Christian  Socialism 

Agriculture  and  the  Other  Industries 

Nationalism 

Work  in  the  Slums 

Applied  Christianity 

CHAPTER  V 

5.  THE  FUTURE  OF  LABOR  IN  AMERICA     -        -        -     141 

The  American  Spirit 

Do  We  Desire  Industrial  Peace  ? 

Private  Property  a  Permanence 

The  Decay  of  Competition 

Co-operation 

Profit-sharing 

The  Leaders  of  the  New  Age 


The  Dignity  of  Labor 


THE  labor  of  the  righteous  tendeth  to  life. — PROV.  x,  16. 

The  sleep  of  a  laboring  man  is  sweet,  whether  he  eat 
little  or  much. — ECCL.  v,  12. 

Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  his  business?  he  shall  stand 
before  kings. — PROV.  xxn,  29. 

Not  slothful  in  business ;   fervent  in  spirit ;   serving  the 
Lord. — ROM.  xn,  II. 

Provide  things   honest  in   the  sight  of   all   men. — ROM. 
xn,  17. 

For  even  when  we  were  with  you,  this  we  commanded 
you,  that  if  any  would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat. 
For  we  hear  that  there  are  some  which  walk  among  you 
disorderly,  working  not  at  all,  but  are  busybodies.  Now 
them  that  are  such  we  command  and  exhort  by  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  with  quietness  they  work,  and  eat  their 
own  bread. — 2  THESS.  in,  10-12. 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Dignity  Jof  Labor 

PREACHERS  and  pious  people  are  not  yet  free 
from  the  fatuity  of  bad  logic.  "In  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,"  is  not  a  curse  from  the 
fall.  If  that  were  so,  to  live  without  work  would 
be  deliverance  from  the  curse.  Labor  is  the 
natural  condition  of  life.  Labor  is  honorable. 
All  nature  is  diligent.  Every  beast  and  bird  and 
insect  is  busy. 

What  amazing  edifices  are  being  raised  by  the 
weakest  creatures  in  existence!  The  tiny  coral 
buttresses  its  work  at  the  bases  of  the  moun- 
tains, where  the  bars  of  the  earth  are  laid;  and 
it  builds  its  domes  to  the  top  of  the  sea,  and  gives 
to  man  islands  and  continents  for  his  habitation. 
Each  animate  thing  among  the  tribes  of  nature 
unconsciously  bends  to  the  law  of  its  being,  and 
keeps  busy  all  its  days. 


12  Christ  in  the  Industries 

The  clouds  hurry  past.  The  sunshine  is  al- 
ways at  work.  God  himself  is  at  work  every- 
where. To  cease  to  work,  is  to  cease  to  live. 
The  records  of  the  past  are  records  of  industry. 
Crypts  and  domes  and  ruined  walls  and  rows  of 
marble  columns  miles  in  length,  with  buried  pal- 
aces and  submerged  cities,  all  excite  our  admira- 
tion, because  they  represent  an  immensity  of  toil. 
The  crown  of  Babylon  is  fallen.  Egypt  as  it 
once  was,  is  swept  and  desolate,  and  the  sand- 
dunes  now  cover  its  most  fertile  fields.  The 
Greek  philosophers  are  all  dead;  the  orators  of 
the  Roman  Senate  are  no  more — and  all  that  is 
left  of  these  great  names  and  these  civilizations 
is  an  apotheosis  to  labor.  These  toiling  millions 
of  the  past — these  unknown  builder-worms — 
have  left  imperishable  records  in  catacombs  and 
hieroglyphic  piles  that  have  survived  their  lan- 
guages, and  remain  to  proclaim  the  immortal 
greatness  of  the  spirit  of  industry.  The  sphinxes 
and  pyramids  of  the  Nile  Valley,  the  temple  of 
Zeus,  the  amphitheater  at  Rome,  the  remnants 
of  Baalbec,  the  excavations  of  Nineveh,  the  stone 
records  of  Lejah  and  Kunawat,  the  speaking 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  13 

tombs  of  Bozrah,  and  the  palaces  of  Sardanapa- 
lus, — these  are  the  unwasting  monuments  of  the 
millions  who  placed  them  there.  Thousands  of 
black  and  swarthy  toilers  fell  dead  as  these  stones 
went  up  the  skids  to  their  places.  Their  bodies 
were  scuttled  away,  and  the  work  went  on;  but 
each  of  these  dead  ones  left  a  deposit  of  human 
energy  on  which  the  whole  world  has  been  build- 
ing ever  since. 

If  the  workmen  of  to-day  will  take  a  moment 
to  cast  about  them,  they  will  not  be  jealous  of 
their  own  fame.  It  will  abide  in  these  bridges, 
and  highways,  and  aqueducts,  and  private  pal- 
aces, and  public  buildings ;  in  these  granite  blocks 
thrown  in  clusters  of  great  cities,  these  railways 
and  factories  and  mines,  and  these  ships  that  con- 
quer the  sea. 

From  the  diamond  God  has  set  in  the  sewing- 
girl's  thimble,  to  the  glint  of  heraldry  in  the 
farmer's  plowshare ;  from  the  poorest  shoveler  of 
the  mud  on  our  streets,  to  the  finest  skill  of  the 
painter's  brush  and  sculptor's  chisel,  a  song  of 
industry  goes  into  the  sky,  and  the  celestial  hosts 
carry  its  strains  into  the  ears  of  the  Infinite,  and 


14  Christ  in  the  Industries 

he  applauds.    Labor  is  not  a  curse.    Labor  is  a 
blessing. 

I.  Rafter  Essential  to  Character 

There  is  a  severity  of  toil  not  good  for  the 
body  or  soul.  There  is  an  application  to  work 
so  forced  and  intense  as  to  make  it  a  burden  and 
a  crime.  But  the  necessity  of  labor  for  food  and 
shelter  is  not  a  calamity  or  a  misfortune.  A 
man's  lot  is  neither  better  nor  worse  than  an- 
other's because  he  has  to  work  for  a  living.  To 
be  situated  above  the  necessity  of  labor  is  not 
good  fortune.  Men  and  women  are  foolish  and 
sinful  when  they  court  or  covet  a  life  of  indo- 
lence. Outside  the  peace  of  God,  there  is  more 
happiness  in  industrious  habits  than  in  any 
earthly  thing.  Industry  is  a  quality  of  the  peace 
of  God.  An  unemployed  life  is  always  restless, 
and  discontented,  and  miserable.  A  life  spent 
in  seeking  entertainment  to  banish  dull  hours 
is  fullest  of  monotony,  and  care,  and  dissatisfac- 
tion. The  things  that  entertain,  finally  become 
a  surfeit.  These  butterflies  of  fashion  do  not 
know  what  happiness  means. 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  1 5 

"Blessed  that  child  of  humanity,  happiest  child  among 
men, 

With  hammer  or  chisel  or  pencil,  with  rudder  or  plow- 
share or  pen, 

Laboring  ever  and  ever  with  hope,  through  the  morn- 
ing of  life, 

Winning  home  and  its  darling  divinities,  love-worshiped 
children  and  wife. 

Round  swings  the  hammer  of  industry,  quickly  the 
sharp  chisel  rings, 

And  the  heart  of  the  toiler  has  throbbings  that  stir  not 
the  bosoms  of  kings. 

He  the  true  ruler  and  conqueror,  he  the  true  king  of 
his  race, 

Who  nerveth  his  arm  for  the  combat,  and  looks  the 
strong  world  in  the  face." 

Labor  has  a  blessing  in  itself,  and  beyond  the 
things  gained  by  it.  The  world  never  lacks  in- 
terest to  those  who  are  industriously  useful. 
Physical  health  and  development  are  promoted 
by  it,  and  therefore  a  longer  life  in  the  flesh.  It 
means  also  mental  equipoise,  with  sobriety  of 
temper  and  spirit.  As  a  rule,  hard-working  peo- 
ple are  sober  and  steady-minded.  Indolence  goes 
-with  giddiness  and  foolishness.  There  is  a  show 
of  complaint  for  a  man  when  he  is  not  able  to 


1 6  Christ  in  the  Industries 

work,  or  when  he  can  not  get  work.  (Of  this  we 
shall  speak  further  on.)  A  brave  man  knows  he 
can  not  get  his  destiny  fulfilled  if  he  has  no  work 
to  do,  for  that  is  the  great  law  of  his  life.  The 
night  of  death  presses — when  that  comes,  it  will 
not  be  of  the  slightest  consequence  whether  we 
are  rich  or  poor.  Life  may  have  made  us  as  fat 
as  the  plumpest  pig  of  Epicurus,  or  it  may  have 
made  us  as  gaunt  as  Pharaoh's  lean  kine — the 
one  state  or  the  other  matters  not  then.  Our 
work,  that  is  the  question.  Have  we  done  it  or 
dodged  it?  Our  work  will  remain,  or  the  want 
of  it.  For  all  eternity  this  is  the  question  of 
supremest  moment.  Bags  of  gold,  paper  crowns, 
baubles  of  praise,  the  peacock  feathers,  and  the 
stately  trappings  of  the  funeral, — what  are  all 
these,  when  we  come  to  step  down  into  the  di- 
vine everlasting  night  of  death,  and  face  the  eter- 
nal verities?  Our  work,  our  work!  Is  it  fin- 
ished, or  left  undone?  Who  can  do  my  work 
for  me?  Am  I  to  be  forever  involved  in  the 
thing  I  am  now  doing,  or  neglecting? 

A  man  is  not  himself  until  he  has  something 
to  do.     Lord  Stanley  once  said  in  an  address 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  17 

before  the  students  of  the  University  of  Glasgow : 
"As  work  is  our  life,  show  me  what  you  can  do, 
and  I  will  show  you  what  you  are."  Work  is  a 
preventive  against  petty  anxieties  and  annoy- 
ances. If  we  expect  to  take  refuge  from  trouble 
and  vexation  by  self-reflection,  we  shall  be  dis- 
appointed. It  was  evidently  the  Divine  intent 
that  we  should  be  lost  to  sorrow  when  lost  in  our 
work. 

Anxiety  may  attach  to  any  kind  of  labor;  but 
it  is  not  the  rule  that  less  labor  brings  less  anx- 
iety or  more  happiness.  The  indolent  may  con- 
trive to  have  less  than  their  share  of  the  world's 
work,  but  they  find  directly  that  the  little  they 
have  to  do  is  as  hard  to  bear  as  if  they  had  taken 
full  work.  While  no  state  in  life  is  free  from 
petty  cares,  there  is  less  wear  of  mind  in  being 
usefully  employed  in  business  than  in  the  fretful 
foibles  which  breed  and  multiply  in  an  unoccu- 
pied brain. 

Walter  Scott  says  that  the  sense  of  toil  is 
necessary  to  the  enjoyment  of  rest.  A  few  die 
of  overwork,  many  more  die  of  ennui  which  idle- 
ness breeds.  Labor  disciplines  the  character.  A 


1 8  Christ  in  the  Industries 

workman  digs  in  the  earth,  or  shapes  the  stone 
or  welds  the  iron,  and  earns  a  living.  But  he  is 
doing  more.  Every  sweat-drop  from  his  brow 
spells  out  honesty.  He  exalts  his  manhood.  He 
builds  a  life.  His  energies  of  muscle  and  brain 
are  transformed  finally  into  that  which  is  spirit- 
ual and  imperishable.  The  attrition  of  the  work 
itself  has  this  great  value  to  the  spirit.  The 
habit  of  constant  work — the  fact  of  having  head 
and  hands  full  of  business — is  a  ripener  of  the 
best  energies,  and  a  feeder  of  the  highest  im- 
pulses of  the  personal  man.  The  subjective  value 
of  honorable  toil  is  a  part  of  God's  plan  for  build- 
ing the  personal  life  into  the  highest  things.  We 
shall  not  lift  ourselves  into  the  kingdom  by  our 
boot-straps,  but  we  shall  see  that  due  account 
is  made  of  honorable  industry,  and  that  the  sub- 
stance of  what  we  are  to  have  hereafter,  has  been 
put  in  us  as  life  has  gone  on. 

There  is  no  advantage  in  a  life  of  ease  bent 
on  pleasure.  To  be  without  occupation,  and  to 
seek  happiness  only  in  recreation,  is  to  enter  the 
paradise  of  fools.  The  washerwoman  is  a  queen. 
With  weary  limbs  she  relishes  the  bread  she  has 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  19 

earned,  and  her  sleep  is  with  a  conscience  at  rest. 
Her  work  does  not  satiate  or  cloy  on  her  hands. 
Constant  effort  to  find  amusement  and  to  drive 
dull  care  away,  tires  the  spirit  and  destroys  all 
taste  for  useful  and  profitable  employment.  That 
is  the  bane  of  the  body  and  mind.  It  brings  on 
physical  weakness,  enervates  the  mental  faculties, 
and  leads  to  all  wretchedness.  The  devil  tempts 
nearly  every  man  in  this  world,  but  a  lazy  man 
tempts  the  devil.  Here  is  a  young-  man  who  has 
an  income  of  thousands,  and  does  not  work.  He 
drives  a  coach  and  four.  He  is  outwardly  suave 
and  courteous.  He  is  a  splendid-looking  fellow, 
as  the  world  goes.  He  dresses  well.  He  is  polite 
to  a  fault,  with  those  rules  of  politeness  that  a 
monkey  could  learn  as  well  as  he.  He  has  no 
energy  or  character  or  brains.  He  is  a  profes- 
sional idler,  a  sort  of  devil's  tinkershop  in  a 
small  way.  He  is  a  kind  of  dead  man,  whom  it 
is  not  proper  just  yet  to  bury. 

His  counterpart  is  Miss  Butterfly.  She  is  form- 
less and  insipid  and  dawdling.  She  is  thought 
by  her  silly  parents  to  be  of  too  fine  a  quality  to 
engage  in  any  practical  concern;  her  body  a 


2O  Christ  in  the  Industries 

dummy  for  the  milliner  and  dressmaker.  She 
can  take  two  mortal  hours  for  a  morning  toilet. 
She  is  lavish  with  money — money  made  by  going 
"short"  and  going  "long,"  and  by  other  sorts  of 
uneven  going.  The  money  is  spent,  not  to  build 
a  character,  but  to  make  a  figure;  to  produce  a 
sort  of  Barnum's  "greatest  show  on  earth." 
Money  makes  her  society  and  her  aristocracy. 
No  mental  furnishing,  no  common  sense;  not  in 
need  of  either,  because  it  is  vulgar  to  be  practical. 
She  never  swept  a  room;  she  never  washed  a 
window-pane — or  anything  else  but  a  lace  hand- 
kerchief. Her  jeweled  fingers  were  never  in  the 
bread-tray.  Is  she  beautiful?  She  is  a  piece  of 
waxen  perfection. 

These  two  get  married,  and  start  down  the 
stream  of  life  in  a  golden  canoe.  Young  Mr. 
Tenthousand,  overtaxed  with  the  cares  of  busi- 
ness, which  are  distasteful  to  him,  turns  it  over 
to  a  manager  who  is  heroic  and  strong  to  take 
all  the  care;  but  reverses  come,  wholly  on  ac- 
count of  political  changes,  and  he  suspends  pay- 
ment of  all  debts,  great  and  small. 

A  few  years  go  by,  and  you  may  see  a  faded 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  2 1 

couple  in  a  rickety  chaise  drawn  by  a  super- 
annuated roadster.  Two  little  tots  are  down  in 
front,  dressed  in  different  bits  of  old  but  splen- 
did material.  There  is  about  that  family  an  air 
of  refined  gentility;  but  that  is  about  all  there 
is  about  them.  They  have  come  to  a  pathetic 
state  of  bedraggled  impecuniosity.  So  endeth 
the  tale. 

2.  Common  Goil— Uts  Social  iprooucts 

The  individual  to-day  is  so  related  to  the 
social  welfare  that  he  must  be  a  producer.  He 
must  produce  value  of  some  kind,  spiritual, 
moral,  intellectual,  or  material.  The  social  body 
is  damaged  unless  he  undertakes  to  keep  even. 
There  are  social  values  accruing  to  the  personal 
life  now  of  great  significance,  and  there  is  a  social 
demand  for  value  received.  To  eat  bread,  and 
to  make  no  bread  or  its  equivalent,  is  to  waste 
the  social  substance.  A  citizen  worth  a  million 
may  legally  take  a  rest;  but,  socially,  he  has  no 
right  to  be  idle.  The  world's  stored  capital  is  its 
accumulation,  and  that  is  its  reserved  energy. 
If  the  present  generation  would  stop  work,  and 


22  Christ  in  the  Industries 

begin  to  use  up  the  world's  accumulation,  uni- 
versal poverty  would  be  the  swift  visitation.  But 
all  men  have  as  much  right  to  stop  work  as  any 
one  man. 

The  world's  material  accumulations,  as  well  as 
the  world's  institutions,  are  preserved  by  the  same 
means  that  produced  them.  If  we  should  con- 
clude to  lie  down  on  this  product  which  we  have 
saved  up,  and  ask  it  to  keep  us,  it  would  soon 
drop  us  to  destruction.  The  individual,  there- 
fore, has  no  right  to  use  value,  and  produce  none. 
But  carved  stones  and  polished  boards  and  beaten 
sails  are  not  the  only  kinds  of  value  in  the  world. 
There  is  value  of  deft  muscle,  and  cultured  brain, 
and  expanded  soul.  A  sick  daughter,  bedridden 
and  helpless,  may  produce  greater  value  in  the 
family  and  in  the  community  than  the  father  who 
earns  the  bread.  We  are  to  disabuse  our  minds 
of  the  idea  that  the  only  values  of  the  world  are 
of  the  tangible  or  the  material  kind.  The  richest 
and  most  real  products  of  modern  society  are 
intellectual  and  spiritual.  Priceless  stored  bene- 
fits are  these,  and  each  human  being  is  under 
duress  to  conserve  and  perpetuate  them.  Jacob 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  23 

left  the  pasture-lands  of  Samaria  as  good  as  he 
found  them,  and  he  dug  a  well.  He  left  an  abid- 
ing world-work.  He  did  something  for  the  gen- 
erations. He  could  have  gone  through  life  with- 
out that  well.  Crafty  and  self-seeking  as  he  was, 
the  fountains  of  his  benevolence  were  opened  in 
this  broad  reach  of  philanthropy.  Jacob  is  gone; 
his  work  abides;  and  forty  generations  have  risen 
to  call  him  blessed. 

Have  you  dug  a  well?  Perhaps  you  have  for 
another,  and  received  pay  for  the  work;  but  the 
greatest  thing  is  not  your  pay — you  have  finished 
a  blessing  which  will  be  such  after  you  are  dead. 
Have  you  built  a  house,  and  received  your 
wages?  Very  well,  you  have  also  made  your 
mark  on  the  city,  which  is  independent  of  owner- 
ship. Of  what  sort  is  your  product  as  a  house- 
builder?  Are  the  doors  hung  so  they  will  not 
worry  housewives  for  the  next  twenty  years?  Is 
the  roof  put  on  so  that  it  will  not  leak?  Are  the 
flues  plastered  on  the  inside?  If  not,  go  do  that 
work  over  again  in  the  morning.  Your  pay  is 
one  thing,  but  your  work  lacks  dignity  unless  it 
is  reliable  and  workmanlike.  Do  you  break  rocks 


24  Christ  in  the  Industries 

on  the  streets,  or  clean  the  gutters,  or  flush  the 
sewers?  The  community  is  even  with  you  if  you 
get  your  pay;  but  thousands  of  people  will  re- 
ceive the  benefit  of  your  work.  There  is  this 
community  side  to  the  humblest  toil  to  give  it 
dignity.  You  have  a  chance  to  stamp  your  work 
with  your  citizenship.  Whatever  you  do,  there- 
fore, has  in  it  very  strong  motives  for  you  to 
think  well  of  yourself. 


3.  Gbe  View  B0e  of 

Labor  is  not  of  high  or  low  degree.  In  all 
necessary  labor  there  is  equality.  By  necessary 
labor  we  mean  that  which  is  essential  to  the 
world's  civilized  life,  and  does  not  contribute  to 
the  immoral  forces.  The  man  who  looks  after 
the  sour-mash  tubs  in  a  distillery  is  not  a  laborer, 
but  a  man  misdirecting  his  energies  toward  the 
destruction  of  society.  He  ought  to  be  counted 
out  of  the  industrial  world.  All  effort  of  this 
kind  is  industrial  malformation. 

But  are  not  some  forms  of  labor  more  honor- 
able than  others?  If  such  a  distinction  exists,  it 
ought  to  be  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  we  ought 
to  be  able  to  see  in  what  it  consists. 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  25 

It  is  said  one  labors  with  his  hands,  and  the 
other  with  his  brains;  and  the  latter  is  more  hon- 
orable,— that  it  is  of  a  higher  quality.  Why?  In 
what  does  that  extra  quality  consist?  Is  God 
keeping  two  accounts,  one  for  the  muscles,  and 
the  other  for  the  brains?  What  can  the  muscles 
do  without  the  brain?  What  can  the  brain  do 
without  the  muscles,  to  give  it  expression  and 
execute  its  behests?  What  pursuit  represents 
the  aristocracy  of  industry? 

It  is  a  very  natural  thing  that  those  of  difier- 
.eut  trades  and  professions  should  be  drawn 
toward  each  other  in  a  sort  of  guild.  The  guild 
spirit  has  in  it  many  advantages  in  the  way  of 
strengthening  human  bonds,  and  in  perfecting  the 
work  of  those  engaged  in  like  pursuits.  Rail- 
roaders hit  each  other  with  their  hats  as  they  go 
by.  That  is,  they  understand  each  other,  so  far 
as  that  goes.  That  is  a  healthful  class  feeling. 
While  it  has  no  intent  to  shut  the  rest  of  man- 
kind out,  this  common  experience  in  a  common 
pursuit  brings  the  whole  body  into  a  better  un- 
derstanding with  itself.  Other  things  equal,  a 
man  feels  more  at  home  with  another  man  en- 


2,6  Christ  in  the  Industries 

gaged  in  a  like  calling  with  himself.  There  is 
a  starting-point  of  fellowship  in  the  things  they 
know  together.  The  free  law  of  personal  assimi- 
lation by  pursuits  is  healthful  in  its  action,  and 
is  not  to  be  deprecated,  except  where  it  is  over- 
strained. But  how  absurd,  indeed,  that  any  pur- 
suit, whether  mental  or  mechanical,  should  put  on 
airs,  and  vote  itself  of  special  consideration  and 
above  all  other  pursuits ! 

It  has  been  supposed  that  the  professions  are 
above  the  trades,  because  they  require  a  higher 
order  of  talent.  That  more  ability  is  required  in 
the  ministry,  or  law,  or  medicine,  or  the  so-called 
learned  pursuits,  than  in  mechanic  arts  or  farm- 
ing. Having  had  some  experience,  it  is  our  judg- 
ment that  a  dullard  can  come  as  near  making 
a  success  of  his  life  in  the  ministry  as  elsewhere. 
It  takes  as  much  natural  talent  and  special  skill 
to  put  under  right  tillering  a  row  of  corn,  as  to 
plead  a  case  before  a  jury,  or  prescribe  for  a 
patient,  or  prepare  and  preach  a  sermon. 

Every  skilled  artisan  is  educated  in  his  line. 
That  his  trade  is  one  of  muscular  skill,  does  not 
signify  that  it  is  lacking  in  mental  power.  We 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  27 

mistake  in  our  estimates  about  the  manual  trades. 
Muscular  skill  is,  of  necessity,  mental.  There 
is  really  no  such  thing  as  muscular  skill.  A  dull 
mind  can  not  produce  a  skilled  muscle.  As  to 
natural  ability,  there  is  very  little  difference  be- 
tween the  trades  and  the  professions ;  and  if  there 
is  an  advantage  now,  it  is  on  the  side  of  the 
artisan.  The  professions  are  still  getting  accre- 
tions from  families  of  "high  life,"  and  the  trades 
get  practically  nothing  from  this  source.  The 
pedigree  of  some  of  these  families  keeps  up  bet- 
ter than  the  blood.  One  is  all  right  and  regular, 
and  the  other  is  pretty  well  run  out,  so  that  they 
are  not  producing  virile  and  forceful  intellects 
any  longer.  They  are  like  some  families  of  Jer- 
sey cattle.  They  all  run  back  to  a  noble  ancestry, 
and  the  registry  on  the  books  is  all  right;  but 
the  individual  is  such  a  sorry  little  runt  that  you 
have  to  carry  the  pedigree  in  your  pocket,  and 
show  that  instead  of  the  animal.  In  this  great 
family  of  necessary  human  pursuits,  one  is  as 
high  and  as  good  as  the  other.  The  business  of 
the  washerwoman  has  as  much  merit  in  it  as  that 
of  preaching.  I  wish  in  my  soul  I  could  get 


28  Christ  in  the  Industries 

things  as  reliably  clean  in  my  business  as  our 
washerwoman  does  in  hers. 

Mr.  Edison  says  that  no  very  large  portion 
of  his  successful  helpers  in  electricity  come  from 
the  colleges.  He  says  the  college  is  likely  to 
spoil  them  for  the  necessary  rough  manual  labor 
required.  The  spirit  of  the  college  is,  that  manual 
labor  is  in  its  nature  an  inferior  kind  of  labor, 
and  that  the  end  of  education  is  to  escape  that. 
That  is  the  greatest  illusion  of  the  industrial 
world.  The  muscular  labor  that  has  no  mental 
force  in  it  to-day  is  hardly  in  competition  with 
the  animal  world.  Edison's  first  test  of  a  young 
man  is  to  tell  him  that  his  first  work  in  elec- 
tricity is  to  sweep  the  floor.  If  he  accepts  the 
test  and  goes  at  it,  he  is  likely  to  become  a  useful 
electrician.  Why  should  not  a  novitiate  sweep 
the  floor?  The  majority  flinch  it,  because  they 
think  it  menial  and  beneath  them.  Why  is  it? 
The  great  time  is  coming,  and  we  see  the  gray 
lines  of  its  dawning  now,  in  which  it  will  be  as 
large  a  business  as  any  to  sweep  a  floor.  Every 
housewife  of  to-day  knows  that  skill  with  a  broom 
is  a  fine  art. 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  29 

Is  there  a  man  here  ashamed  of  his  sunburned 
face  and  calloused  hands?  Shame  on  you,  for 
you  have  put  shame  on  yourself!  The  marks  of  a 
man's  work  are  upon  him,  and  they  ought  to  be. 
The  body  and  the  mind  shape  themselves  to  the 
work  they  do.  It  would  be  a  great  disgrace  for 
a  farmer  to  look  bleached  and  starched  like  a 
merchant  in  a  store.  The  marks  of  a  man's  work 
are  upon  him;  that  is  an  honor. 

4.  tlbe  Bag  of  achievement  is  a  *WIlorh*S>aB 

Bonaventura,  general  of  the  Franciscan  order, 
was  made  a  cardinal  by  Pope  Gregory  X.  The 
cardinal's  hat  was  sent  him  by  the  nuncios,  who 
found  him  washing  dishes.  The  nuncios  were 
amazed,  but  had  to  wait  till  he  finished  the  plates. 
They  hung  that  cardinal's  hat  on  a  dogwood-tree 
in  the  yard  until  he  was  ready  to  receive  it. 

The  great  characters  of  the  world  have  been 
celebrated  for  the  amount  of  work  they  could 
perform.  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Bacon,  Newton, 
were  hard  workers.  They  never  retired  from 
their  work.  Moses,  and  Paul,  and  Luther,  and 
Wesley,  all  died  with  the  harness  on.  They  put 


30  Christ  in  the  Industries 

forth  great  endeavors  in  the  world,  and  the  world 
found  a  place  for  them.  Karamsin,  the  Russian 
traveler,  once  asked  Lavater  whence  he  derived 
such  strength  of  mind  and  power  of  endurance, 
and  he  replied:  "Man  rarely  wants  the  power  to 
work  when  he  has  the  will;  the  more  I  labor  in 
the  discharge  of  my  duties,  so  much  the  more 
ability  and  inclination  to  labor  do  I  find  within 
myself."  Edison  says,  "For  the  last  fifteen  years 
I  have  averaged  twenty  hours  a  day."  There  is 
nothing  valuable  in  the  world  attained  without 
labor.  To  have  everything  easy  for  the  race 
would  work  its  ruin. 

The  greatest  offices  and  positions  of  the  world 
are  not  places  of  ease.  No  ease-loving  soul  can 
fill  them  acceptably.  Many  of  them  exact  fright- 
ful amounts  of  labor.  The  sterling  question  of 
the  world  now  is,  "Are  you  a  good  worker?" 
Work  is  the  divine  test  of  greatness.  The  New 
Testament  law  reverses  all  our  false  estimates. 
The  chiefest  serve  the  most.  Who  are  these  use- 
ful people?  Who  are  making  things  appear  as 
they  are?  They  are  first.  The  Bible  says:  "And 
whosoever  of  you  will  be  the  chiefest  shall  be 


The  Dignity  of  Labor  31 

servant  of  all ;"  "Whosoever  will  be  great  among 
you  shall  be  your  minister;"  "For  even  the  Son 
of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 
True  greatness  lies  not  in  wealth  or  in  place,  but 
in  service  to  others.  The  toilers  of  the  world 
are  its  servants,  and  its  servants  are  its  great 
ones.  How  simple  that  makes  every  question  of 
ambition,  or  precedence,  or  fame! 

Bishop  Fowler  has  this  apotheosis  to  work: 
"The  multiplicity  of  achievements,  from  reapers 
for  our  harvests,  to  gas  for  our  streets;  from 
spindles  for  our  factories,  to  cables  for  our 
oceans, — all  have  a  history  of  toil;  the  cook,  the 
chemist,  the  doctor.,  the  shoemaker,  the  tailor, 
the  engineer,  prepare  better  nutriments,  better 
securities,  and  more  abundant  vitality.  Old  veins 
are  rilled  with  new  blood,  old  nerves  with  new 
electricity ;  and  all  this,  and  more,  represents  fifty 
years  of  harvest  and  fifty  centuries  of  seed-time, 
and  both  are  work-days." 


Social  Transformations 


33 


FOR  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all 
the  members  of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one  body : 
so  also  is  Christ.  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized 
into  one  body,  whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether 
we  be  bond  or  free ;  and  have  been  all  made  to  drink  into 
one  Spirit.  For  the  body  is  not  one  member,  but  many. 
If  the  foot  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  hand,  I  am  not 
of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ?  And  if  the 
ear  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the 
body;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body?  If  the  whole  body 
were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing?  If  the  whole  were 
hearing,  where  were  the  smelling?  But  now  hath  God  set 
the  members  every  one  of  them  in  the  body,  as  it  hath 
pleased  him.  And  if  they  were  all  one  member,  where 
were  the  body?  But  now  are  they  many  members,  yet  but 
one  body.  And  the  eye  can  not  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have 
no  need  of  thee :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no 
need  of  you.  Nay,  much  more  those  members  of  the  body, 
which  seem  to  be  more  feeble,  are  necessary :  and  those 
members  of  the  body,  which  we  think  to  be  less  honorable, 
upon  these  we  bestow  more  abundant  honor ;  and  our  un- 
comely parts  have  more  abundant  comeliness.  For  our 
comely  parts  have  no  need :  but  God  hath  tempered  the 
body  together,  having  given  more  abundant  honor  to  that 
part  which  lacked :  that  there  should  be  no  schism  in  the 
body ;  but  that  the  members  should  have  the  same  care  one 
for  another.  And  whether  one  member  suffer,  all  the  mem- 
bers suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  be  honored,  all  the  mem- 
bers rejoice  with  it.  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
members  in  particular. — i  COR.  xn,  12-27. 
34 


CHAPTER  II 
Social  Transformations 


1.  Religion  anD 

RELIGION  is  not  a  creed  or  any  system  of  doc- 
trines. It  is  not  a  refinement  or  an  abstraction. 
It  is  not  a  decoy.  It  is  not  a  subjective  feeling, 
to  be  fondled  before  God.  It  is  not  a  species  of 
sentimental  finery,  to  be  worn  on  public  occa- 
sions, and  then  laid  away  in  plush  and  velvet 
under  lock  and  key.  It  is  not  Church  member- 
ship or  baptism.  There  are  baptized  Church 
members  who  violate  the  commandments  and 
deny  their  Lord. 

To  love  God  with  all  your  heart,  and  your 
neighbor  as  yourself  —  that  is  religion.  That,  mul- 
tiplied sufficiently,  will  transform  the  world.  The 
largest  feature  of  religion  is  a  life  —  a  week-day 
life  —  which  does  not  feel  itself  out  of  place  with 
poverty  and  want,  and  can  hear  the  world's  cry 
of  pain  and  despair. 

Religion  takes  in  the  problem  of  how  to  live, 
35 


36  Christ  in  the  Industries 

and  of  the  equities  of  the  world.  Religion  means 
fair  play  and  an  equal  chance  to  every  man  on 
earth.  For  the  present,  therefore,  religion  is  not 
so  much  a  heavenly  aspiration  as  an  earthly  ne- 
cessity. Religion  identifies  itself  with  the  tem- 
poral welfare  of  men  in  a  practical  way.  It  has 
to  do  with  common  wants — labor,  sorrow,  aspi- 
ration, society,  faith.  Christ,  the  Savior  of  men's 
souls,  is  also  their  constant  guide  into  better 
earthly  conditions. 

Bread:  we  mean  by  that  a  puffed  and  snowy 
biscuit  just  broken  open  by  a  hungry  man  for 
breakfast;  and  we  mean  all  the  accessories — the 
butter  and  the  other  things  that  make  that  bis- 
cuit palatable,  the  meats  and  the  gravies  and  the 
sauces.  We  mean  the  chair  the  man  sits  in,  the 
table-linen,  his  wife's  clean  kitchen  apron,  the 
carpet,  the  dishes,  the  whole  equipment  of  the 
kitchen;  the  home,  with  all  its  provision  for  wo- 
man's happiness.  We  mean  the  deed  to  the  lot; 
we  mean  all  the  guarantees  against  a  rainy  day. 

Mortals  may  have  all  these  things,  and  not 
have  religion;  but  the  possession  of  these  things 
helps  mortals  to  enjoy  religion.  Every  man  in  the 


Social  Transformations  37 

world  has  a  right  to  bread,  if  he  is  willing  to  meet 
the  divine  conditions  and  give  the  sweat  of  his 
face  for  it.  And  any  man  has  both  a  civil  and 
a  divine  privilege  to  starve,  if  he  prefers  that  to 
work.  In  another  chapter  we  will  discuss  his 
social  right  to  a  chance  to  work  when  thrown 
under  by  complex  and  changing  industrial  con- 
ditions; but  here  we  only  desire  to  set  forth  the 
common  law  of  life,  that  man  must  pay  the  price 
of  his  own  existence. 

We  do  not  intend  it  in  the  sense  of  a  rebuke, 
to  say  that  man's  physical  necessities  have  always 
been  with  him  his  chiefest  concern.  This  has 
impressed  him  first  and  last,  and  has  driven  him 
at  all  times  to  the  greatest  exertion.  His  chief 
fight  in  the  world  has  been  for  bread.  Through 
the  ages  it  has  made  him  a  toiler.  At  times  it 
has  made  him  a  hungry  lion.  At  others  a  re- 
morseless tyrant,  taking  the  bread  of  others,  and 
giving  nothing  in  return.  The  religious  life, 
therefore,  has  its  very  center  in  this  daily  life  of 
toil  among  men.  Any  faith  that  is  to  command 
the  respect  of  men  in  the  future,  must  meet  and 
master  the  issues  of  life  on  its  sterner  side.  Has 


38  Christ  in  the  Industries 

the  Christian  religion  adequate  ideas  and  moral 
principles?  They  need  to  be  incarnated  into  the 
common  human  activities.  Vital  godliness  will 
mix;  it  will  stand  the  wear  and  tear  of  every-day 
use.  Men  with  religious  convictions  need  not 
take  on  celestial  attitudes,  and  retire  from  the 
world  and  keep  out  of  sight  of  sin,  in  order  to 
prepare  for  the  kingdom.  The  man  who  is  afraid 
of  contact  with  matter-of-fact  concerns,  who  has 
about  him  the  holy  flavor  of  religious  exclusive- 
ness,  holds  his  faith  in  such  slim  tenure  as  to  be 
of  little  use  in  this  tense  battle  for  bread,  and 
place,  and  power. 

If  religion  is  needed  anywhere  on  earth,  it  is 
needed  in  this  world  of  traffic  and  barter,  with  its 
competition  and  excitement,  with  its  economic 
perplexities,  with  its  heat  of  passion  and  exas- 
peration of  defeat,  its  turns  and  reverses  of  busi- 
ness, its  bulls  and  bears  of  the  markets. 

The  commercial  spirit  of  religion  is  to  rule 
the  world  of  the  future.  That  is  to  say,  business 
honor,  fair  play,  and  social  justice  will  do  their 
work  just  ahead,  or  the  world's  progress  will  be 
retarded  for  centuries.  Jesus  Christ  is  to  recon- 


Social  Transformations  39 

struct  the  world  socially.  How  that  is  to  come 
about  is  our  problem.  Social  defects  glare  at  us 
these  days.  The  burdens  of  the  poor  are  as  big 
as  mountains.  Monstrous  wrongs  are  yet  to  be 
righted.  They  are  in  process  of  being  righted. 
Transformations  are  coming  to  pass;  but  the  old 
order  standeth  over  a  larger  part  of  the  world 
to-day. 

2.  Gbe  Supremacy  of  fforce 

We  stop  now  to  draw  a  picture  of  gloom. 
One  of  the  remarkable  features  in  the  history 
of  man  is  the  supremacy  of  force  over  justice. 
It  will  take  a  few  minutes  for  you  to  see  what 
we  mean.  In  the  earliest  ages  the  strongest  and 
most  intrepid  and  warlike  tribes  took  the  best 
pasture-lands,  and  weaker  families  and  peoples 
were  enslaved,  or  driven  out,  or  not  infrequently 
blotted  out  of  existence.  They  suffered  the  pen- 
alty of  living  under  unfavorable  circumstances. 
Strong  nations  conquer  weak  ones,  and  make 
them  subservient.  The  Israelites  go  down  into 
Egypt,  and  are  enslaved.  In  course  of  time  they 
find  freedom  in  flight.  They  learn  hardihood  in 


40  Christ  in  the  Industries 

the  desert,  and  go  up  and  conquer  and  drive  out 
the  Canaanites,  and  take  by  force  the  land.  They 
settle  all  its  borders,  and  make  it  fertile  as  a 
garden.  These  Hebrews  become  the  prey  of 
other  nations  finally.  Egypt,  Babylon,  Alex- 
ander, Caesar,  rule  them  one  after  another. 
Rome  finally  rules  the  world,  because  she  has 
become  the  strongest.  Other  centuries  go  by. 
Rome  begins  to  die  at  the  centers.  Then  the 
barbarous  Northmen  flood  all  the  valleys  of  the 
Mediterranean  countries.  Goth  and  Vandal 
blood  leaves  its  deposit  all  over  Europe,  and  is 
finally  lost  among  indigenous  peoples.  Other 
centuries  go  by.  Modern  Europe  is  born,  and 
self-interest  seems  to  have  dictated  about  all  the 
quiet  she  has  had.  Standing  armies,  increasing 
war  budgets,  growing  navies;  with  the  surface 
as  fair  as  a  May  morning,  there  is  tremendous 
preparation  for  war.  Spain  and  America  now 
settle  their  issues  in  the  abitrament  of  arms,  and 
the  weaker  will  go  down. 

In  all  that  we  have  recited,  and  in  all  we  de- 
sire you  to  read  between  the  lines,  there  is  not 
utter  absence  of  the  elements  of  humanity  and 


Social  Transformations  41 

justice.  Often  the  issues  of  the  strife  are  the  de- 
crees of  justice.  But  the  point  we  make  is,  that 
force  is  king,  whether  it  be  justice  or  not.  Man 
has  always  lived  in  the  midst  of  a  constant  social 
feudalism.  There  is  a  species  of  whip-tiger  in 
human  nature,  having  in  it  a  quenchless  desire 
to  prey  on  the  blood  of  its  fellows.  Man  has  so 
far  fought  and  devoured  his  own  kind  as  greedily 
as  the  animal  creation.  He  has  a  moral  and 
spiritual  life,  and  his  actions  carry  with  them 
eternal  and  changeless  relations;  but  he  has  been 
mostly  blind  to  these.  Man  becomes  civilized, 
but  his  civilizations  carry  the  incubus  of  as  great 
wrongs  as  were  ever  known  in  his  states  of  sav- 
agery. He  has  been  swayed  by  forces  which 
have  no  justice  in  them.  The  slimy  trail  of  the 
serpent  of  oppression  is  yet  seen  on  the  face  of 
society,  and  it  poisons  and  blasts  the  hopes  of 
millions.  I  show  you  the  track  of  the  old  gorgon. 
i.  Down  in  Egypt — the  birthplace  of  civiliza- 
tion as  the  world  anciently  knew  it — where  for 
centuries  tyrants  held  the  power  of  life  and  death 
over  their  subjects,  there  rules  now  an  important 
personage  we  call  the  khedive.  He  is  great, 


42  Christ  in  the  Industries 

simply  because  of  his  position.  At  the  bottom 
in  Egypt  next  to  the  mud  of  the  Nile  are  the 
fellahin.  They  are  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  Their 
condition  is  most  pitiable;  and  yet  they  are  the 
annual  saviors  of  Egypt.  The  khedive,  it  is 
said,  owns  in  fee  simple  about  one-third  the 
arable  Nile  Valley.  The  fellahin  have  taken  from 
them  each  year,  by  the  tax-gatherer,  all  their 
products,  except  an  amount  of  the  plainest  food 
to  keep  them  alive,  and  one  blue  cotton  shirt  each 
year.  If  an  American  cartoonist  should  go  to 
Egypt,  he  would  draw  the  khedive  as  a  well- 
preserved  gentleman,  with  one  eye  on  England, 
and  the  other  on  the  Sublime  Porte,  and  with 
each  hand  grasping  the  throat  of  an  Egyptian 
fellah. 

Egypt's  worker  is  a  nobody.  Social  forces 
have  kept  him  a  slave  for  centuries.  The  first 
rights  of  a  human  being  are  to  him  an  inheritance 
of  the  generations  yet  to  come. 

2.  Over  the  face  of  Asia  to-day,  society  is 
clearly  and  definitely  stratified.  There  is  an 
upper  layer,  a  middle  layer,  and  a  lower  layer. 
The  man  in  the  upper  layer  has  light  work  and 


Social  Transformations  43 

good  pay.  His  privileges  make  him  conserv- 
ative ;  and  he  is  the  last  man  to  break  caste.  The 
man  in  the  lower  layer  is  not  having  so  good 
a  time.  He  has  hard  work  and  poor  pay.  He 
may  desire  to  break  caste,  but  he  can  not. 
Through  the  dominance  of  the  same  social  cus- 
toms for  centuries,  his  position  has  become  a 
desperately  sacred  thing.  For  generations  yet 
this  low-caste  man  must  stay  on  his  knees,  and 
apologize  for  the  unpardonable  presumption  of 
being  in  the  world.  Put  all  of  his  kind  together, 
and  they  constitute  an  invertebrate  mass,  held 
in  the  grip  of  despair  by  the  caste  system,  and 
in  which  all  individuality  is  discounted  and  de- 
stroyed. 

3.  The  Empire  of  Russia  to-day  is  cursed  with 
a  shiftless  and  corrupt  landed  gentry — six  or 
seven  hundred  thousand  hereditary  noblemen; 
four  hundred  thousand  non-hereditary;  a  million 
aristocratic  idlers  and  spendthrifts.  Under  these, 
the  peasantry  are  impoverished  with  rentals  and 
with  the  greater  taxation.  The  czar  is  an  auto- 
crat. The  noblemen  are  his  supporters.  The 
peasantry  know  they  are  oppressed.  And  when- 


44  Christ  in  the  Industries 

ever  the  war  spirit  slumbers  in  Russia,  there 
comes  from  this  peasant  horde  an  inarticulate 
cry  of  despair,  a  sort  of  hailing  sign  of  distress 
going  out  into  the  dark,  as  if  they  were  shrouded 
in  a  gloom  where  justice  is  dead.  With  the 
Russian  people,  however,  this  cry  is  the  prophecy 
of  the  morning,  and  the  attempts  at  its  repres- 
sion by  the  czar  are  as  futile  as  if  he  would  try 
to  stop  the  mouth  of  a  crater  with  his  cap. 

4.  To  the  south  of  us  lies  Cuba,  the  Kohinoor 
of  the  west  seas.    For  nearly  a  century  her  native 
peoples  have  been  practically  slaves  to  the  venal- 
ity of  a  stronger  race.    There,  in  the  land  of  their 
nativity,  and  having  a  right  to  the  products  of 
their  own  toil,  they  have  been  held  in  commercial 
tyranny,  and  sold  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
Time  and  again  they  have  made  the  struggle  for 
freedom,  and  only  their  latest  cry  has  been  heard 
in  sympathy  by  the  queen  of  nations,  and  the 
morning  for  Cuba  draweth  nigh. 

5.  One  of  the  remarkable  features  of  the  mod- 
ern world  is  the  fact  that  indigenous  races  are 
being  exterminated  by  coming  in  contact  with 
the  Anglo-Saxon.     The  original  European  has 


Social  Transformations  45 

been  completely  absorbed.  The  Australian  abo- 
riginal is  fading  before  the  Anglo-Saxon  invader. 
One  of  the  leading  colonists  of  South  Africa  says 
the  natives  must  go.  In  this  country  the  Ameri- 
can Indian  is  disappearing  before  the  white  man. 
Europe  to-day  has  practically  parceled  out  Africa ; 
and  the  work  of  the  overthrow  of  the  native  races 
has  begun.  While  the  Negro  in  America  is  not 
an  indigenous  race,  he  stands  related  in  the  same 
way  to  the  white  man.  The  Civil  War  abolished 
slavery  in  the  South,  but  the  white  man  rules 
there  as  supremely  as  in  the  days  of  slavery. 
They  are  changing  their  State  constitutions,  so 
that  the  future  can  be  made  secure.  The  race 
question  is  still  on,  and  to  remain.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  very  far  from  allow- 
ing any  considerable  number  of  his  blood  to  re- 
main long  even  in  political  subordination  to  any 
other  race.  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  paid  the  price 
of  his  national  ascendency,  and  he  is  going  to 
keep  it.  A  first  place  has  come  to  him  in  na- 
tional greatness,  and  in  the  achievements  of  civ- 
ilization, and  under  the  severest  tests  to  which 
the  life  of  a  race  can  be  put.  In  the  stress  and 


46  Christ  in  the  Industries 

strain  of  the  contests  of  his  history,  he  has  be- 
come strong  and  great.  He  has  become  a  giant 
in  his  rivalries. 


3.  Commercial 

The  march  of  development  has  brought  great 
advantages  to  this  strong  race-blood.  It  has  sur- 
rounded him  with  literature,  and  art,  and  music, 
and  civil  institutions  unparalleled  in  glory.  My 
race,  in  an  experience  of  thousands  of  years,  has 
proved  that  it  can  travel,  and  build  strong  insti- 
tutions, and  come  to  supremacy  among  the  races. 
But  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  gone  westward  as  far 
as  new  empire  invites  him  now.  He  must  either 
go  up  or  down  henceforth.  It  is  a  serious  busi- 
ness with  us  now,  whether  we  can  stay  at  home 
and  stand  it,  as  the  Chinese  have  done.  We  have 
felt  the  spring  of  a  world  mastery;  we  must  yet 
learn  to  live  together  without  devouring  each 
other.  We  must  be  so  vigilant  for  freedom  and 
personal  right,  that  if  they  were  buried  before 
our  eyes,  we  ought  to  be  found  standing  over 
their  graves,  and  able  to  command  their  resur- 
rection. Great  work  for  mortals;  but  it  must 
be  done. 


Social  Transformations  47 

The  Western  World  is  in  the  midst  of  an  in- 
dustrial war.  It  is  peaceful,  in  that  it  has  not 
made  its  appeal  to  arms ;  but  it  is  about  as  relent- 
less as  any  of  the  older  conflicts.  It  has  not 
broken  the  regular  currents  of  trade,  except  in 
sporadic  cases.  It  has  not  broken  into  the  ten 
thousand  relations  of  the  social  organization 
which  constitute  the  guarantees  of  public  order. 
It  is  held  within  bounds  by  the  arts  of  peace;  but 
it  is  arraying  on  different  sides  the  same  mother's 
sons.  We  are  not  sure  what  a  day  may  bring 
forth  in  the  social  ferment.  The  soothsayers 
declare  there  is  nothing  to  be  apprehended;  but 
the  unrest  of  the  time  will  not  be  quieted  until 
justice  is  enthroned. 

A  widow  having  the  care  of  a  family,  invests 
her  little  money  in  a  corporation.  She  is  advised 
to  do  this  by  one  of  the  directors.  It  comes  to 
pass  that  two  or  three  of  the  directors  conclude 
to  increase  their  profits  by  getting  a  controlling 
interest.  The  stock  depreciates  very  much;  then 
the  widow  is  advised  to  sell  before  she  loses  all; 
then  others  sell;  and  others.  After  a  time,  the 
stock  returns  to  its  face  value,  and  then  to  a 


48  Christ  in  the  Industries 

premium.  The  directors  get  rich;  the  widow  is 
ruined.  She  has  no  bread,  because  the  directors 
had  no  religion. 

Prices  on  nearly  all  products  now  are  fixed  by 
some  sort  of  combine.  Our  nails,  our  tacks,  our 
matches,  our  firebrick,  our  window-glass,  our 
coffee,  our  sugar,  our  lumber,  our  shoes,  our 
hats,  our  medicines,  our  physicians'  bills,  our 
coffins,  and  the  prices  on  scores  of  other  pro- 
ducts are  fixed  by  the  committees  of  the  com- 
bine. A  convention  of  undertakers  some  time 
ago  resolved  to  abolish  the  clergy  on  the  last  half 
of  the  funeral  service.  If  they  undertake  it,  it 
will  probably  be  done;  for  Church  rituals,  and 
custom,  and  the  most  sacred  feelings  of  the  hu- 
man heart  are  not  expected  to  stand  in  the  way 
of  a  modern  combine.  The  National  Burial 
Association  has  now  run  the  price  of  caskets  so 
high,  as  to  discourage  mortality.  A  poor  man 
can  hardly  afford  to  die  any  more.  No  blame  is 
attached  to  small  dealers;  they  simply  take  their 
profits.  The  Chicago  Lumbermen's  Exchange 
declares  it  "dishonorable"  for  private  dealers  to 
make  lower  prices  than  those  published  by  the 


Social  Transformations  49 

Exchange.  The  price-lists  of  the  Exchange  are 
revised,  and  made  "honest"  monthly. 

A  few  years  ago,  a  capitalist  went  into  the 
coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania  with  fifty  millions, 
having  in  view  the  combining  of  the  four  func- 
tions of  producer,  and  carrier,  and  dealer,  and 
consumer.  A  small  dealer  asked  the  lieutenant, 
"What  is  to  become  of  us  small  dealers?"  The 
reply  was,  "If  you  go  to  the  wall,  it  is  your  mis- 
fortune." 

Any  small  city  could  afford  a  match  factory; 
but  if  one  were  started  in  a  small  city,  the  asso- 
ciation would  ship  matches  to  that  competing 
point  cheaper  than  the  little  company  could  buy 
the  green  wood  in  the  tree. 

A  few  years  ago  coal-oil  was  discovered  on 
the  western  coast.  It  was  about  to  be  marketed 
by  those  who  owned  it,  when  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  laid  crude  coal-oil  down  in  San  Fran- 
cisco cheaper  than  the  new  company  could  put  it 
into  their  tanks  at  the  wells;  and  the  reporter 
says  they  turned  their  oil  out  and  down  the 
creeks. 

An  association  of  old  rag-dealers  was  formed 
4 


50  Christ  in  the  Industries 

in  Cleveland  a  few  years  ago,  having  for  its  phi- 
lanthropic purpose  the  keeping  of  the  women  of 
the  country  from  making  too  much  profit  on  the 
contents  of  their  rag-bags.  The  association  has 
been  very  successful. 

Another  association  was  formed  not  long  ago 
to  cool  the  senseless  ardor  of  the  farmers  for 
barbed  wire.  The  farmers  got  a  splendid  lesson, 
for  which,  of  course,  they  paid. 

The  tendency  of  all  business  to-day  is  toward 
centralization.  The  small  dealer,  under  present 
conditions  and  laws,  is  fighting  a  hopeless  battle. 
He  must  choose  between  extermination  or  vas- 
salage. This  is  the  new  survival  under  which 
the  world  groans.  In  it  are  involved  the  most 
serious  issues  of  the  modern  age;  and  through 
it  cruelties  are  perpetrated  more  exquisite  than 
were  ever  known  in  savage  life.  We  have  be- 
come acquainted  with  marauding  and  highway 
robbery  under  forms  of  law.  A  great  problem 
of  social  ethics  stands  for  solution.  It  is  easy  to 
see  that  men  are  everywhere  restless  about  these 
things.  We  all  desire  industrial  peace;  but  how 
are  we  to  get  it  if  the  old  animalism  holds  the 


Social  Transformations  51 

day?  Organized  capital  on  one  hand,  and  or- 
ganized labor  on  the  other;  a  warring  of  inter- 
ests, in  which  every  sane  man  knows  the  destruc- 
tion of  one  is  the  ruin  of  the  other.  What  awful 
insanity;  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

I  confess  to  have  drawn  a  gloomy  picture. 
It  is  a  dire  and  relentless  conflict  in  this  life  hu- 
man, which  means  death  in  the  end.  Is  man  to 
be  driven  forever  by  the  brute  forces,  to  fight  and 
to  die,  simply  for  the  end  that  a  stronger  race 
of  fighters  may  come  after  him,  and  struggle  and 
die  also?  This  makes  life  itself  a  calamity,  and 
puts  despair  into  history. 

4.  ftbe  IRew  Dag  of  Competitive  /Bborals 

Slowly  the  social  mind  is  coming  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  the  tearfulness  of  this  strife  of  the 
ages,  there  has  been  a  common  misunderstand- 
ing arising  from  a  common  ignorance  of  the 
highest  and  most  powerful  forces  in  the  social 
life  of  the  world;  that  the  human  race  has  been 
a  pathetic  sufferer,  because  its  energies  have  pro- 
ceeded on  the  plane  of  a  purely  animal  life,  rather 
than  in  the  plane  of  the  rivalries  which  involve 


52  Christ  in  the  Industries 

the  reason  and  conscience  and  faith.  Whether 
this  be  true  or  not,  is  of  the  greatest  importance. 
What  principles  are  to  enter  the  social  life  of 
the  world,  and  which  of  them  are  to  have  social 
ascendency,  is  certainly  of  supreme  moment. 
Facing  such  things  as  these,  we  are  not  interested 
in  the  success  of  a  theory.  Where  does  the  truth 
lie?  Is  there  nothing  for  the  race  but  this  life- 
and-death  struggle,  with  death  having  the  ad- 
vantage all  the  time?  Is  it  so,  that  as  human 
beings  devour  one  another,  it  shall  have  no  other 
meaning  than  that  which  it  has  in  the  animal 
world?  Are  war  and  strife  the  lot  of  man,  and 
peace  the  exception?  If  that  were  so,  the  race 
is  doomed;  and  it  were  better  not  to  live.  The 
human  reason  may  stand  in  confusion;  but  the 
human  heart  has  never  been  satisfied  with  any 
such  explanation. 

It  may  be  that  the  depravities  of  this  strife 
have  kept  from  view  some  of  the  greatest  springs 
of  the  human  spirit.  Is  it  not  possible  that  some 
of  the  highest  phenomena  in  the  history  of  hu- 
man life  may  not  have  yet  been  seen  in  the  crash 
of  these  selfish  rivalries?  May  there  not  be  a 


Social  Transformations  53 

high  contention,  in  which  the  affections  and  the 
humanities  hold  sway?  May  there  not  be  a  ri- 
valry of  reason  and  conscience?  May  not  the 
moral  and  spiritual  activities  bring  to  man  finally 
the  equipoise  of  everlasting  peace?  The  move- 
ments of  history  will  make  no  advance  for  man, 
and  society  can  in  no  way  be  bettered  by  leaving 
out  the  chief  things  in  human  nature.  And  may 
not  this  be  the  reason  for  the  catastrophes  of  his- 
tory? Is  it  a  hopeless  task  to  search  for  the  high- 
est and  final  laws  of  human  society,  or  to  under- 
take to  interpret  them  in  their  most  complex 
aspects,  and  expect  thereby  to  be  led  into  real  life 
and  happiness  and  peace?  Contention  for  mas- 
tery, like  that  among  the  brutes,  as  of  the  biggest 
dog  who  takes  all  the  bone  and  fills  himself  to 
gluttony,  and  then  hides  the  rest  from  his  hungry 
fellows — how  destructive  of  all  the  highest  things 
in  human  nature! 

This  maddening  strife  for  the  stuff  of  the 
world,  to  a  thousand-fold  more  than  a  sufficiency 
for  a  few,  and  to  the  stints  of  poverty  for  the 
many,  how  subversive  of  all  noble  sentiment  and 
rational  desire! 


54  Christ  in  the  Industries 

Benjamin  Kidd  says:  "The  two  new  forces 
which  made  their  advent  with  man  were  his 
reason  and  the  capacity  for  acting  in  concert." 
Fatal  to  that  position  is  the  fact  that  the  animal 
world  shows  both  of  these.  Good  horses  have 
horse-sense,  which  is  more  than  some  men  have. 
Pelicans  and  wild-hogs  and  wolves  act  in  con- 
cert. So  do  the  bees  and  ants  and  birds. 

For  these  we  substitute  two  other  terms.  The 
one  is  conscience,  the  other  is  spirituality.  These 
are  the  distinguishing  features  of  human  life  from 
all  below  it  Out  of  these  come  squarely  two 
facts  of  human  nature: 

(1)  The  greatest  sufferings  and  sorrows  of  life 
arise  from  moral  defections.     Always  the  lesser 
calamities  are  the  physical. 

(2)  Man's   spiritual  constitution   can  not  be 
ignored  in  the  forms  of  human  society;  because 
in  it,  and  not  in  his  body,  are  the  springs  of  his 
greatest  pleasures  and  pains. 

With  these  facts  kept  in  the  mind,  we  may 
come  to  a  permanent  understanding  of  the  real 
causes  of  the  improvement  and  perpetuity  of  hu- 
man institutions.  With  them  in  view,  we  may 


Social  Transformations  55 

also  confidently  expect  that  in  the  rivalry  of  races 
and  classes,  which  is  now  bringing  into  play 
every  reserve  of  power  among  them,  and  which 
seems  to  be  more  intense  as  social  conditions 
become  more  complex,  the  races  and  classes 
possessed  of  the  greatest  moral  forces  will,  from 
now  on,  have  a  decided  advantage  in  the  pro- 
gress they  are  to  make. 

The  man  who  is  interested  in  bread,  and  not 
in  morals,  is  helping  his  country  commit  suicide. 
I  make  not  here  the  special  plea  of  a  religious 
weakling.  If  society  accepts  not  the  terms,  I  will 
read  its  death-warrant.  I  challenge  human  soci- 
ety with  the  moral  order  of  the  universe.  To 
violate  that  order,  is  to  get  the  ill-will  of  events, 
is  to  vex  God,  and  court  certain  dissolution.  The 
question  is  not  first,  "Who  has  the  greatest  pile 
of  the  world's  stuff?"  but,  "Where  is  the  right?" 
"Where  is  justice?"  When  shall  men  emulate 
each  other  in  the  royal  strife  of  honor?  When 
shall  there  be  a  rivalry  of  human  friendship? 
When  shall  there  be  strife  for  greatest  integrity, 
and  for  the  truth,  and  for  a  neighborly  spirit? 
The  race,  until  this  time,  has  had  fitful  risings 


56  Christ  in  the  Industries 

into  the  sway  of  vital  forces,  which  has  given 
pure  humanity  the  supremacy;  and  then  for  long 
periods  it  has  been  swayed  by  the  brutalities. 
Persistent  and  assertive  has  been  this  lower  side 
of  the  race.  Whether  man's  higher  nature  will 
ever  rise  over  its  fatalities  remains  to  be  seen. 

Our  hope  lies  in  the  one  remarkable  spectacle 
we  now  bring  before  you.  It  is  the  spectacle  of 
a  gigantic  birth.  It  was  of  vast  significance  from 
the  first;  but  for  a  long  time  the  world  did  not 
see  it.  Its  beginning  forms  were  secretive,  but 
immeasurably  great.  It  went  down  at  first  to 
move  and  work  among  the  unknown  classes,  and 
to  transform  them.  It  was  tremendously  con- 
structive. It  appeared  to  draw  vitality  from  the 
very  general  decay  about  it.  It  brought  into  the 
human  heart  new  affinities  and  new  attachments 
and  affections.  The  world  never  saw  the  like  of 
that  before.  Governments  became  alarmed  at  it, 
and  tried  to  stamp  it  out ;  but  they  did  naught  but 
scatter  it,  and  reveal  its  altogether  uncontrollable 
virility.  It  replaced  ethnic  forms,  and  spread  to 
become  as  vast  as  the  sea.  It  is  now  no  longer 
contemptible.  There  is  no  understanding  the 


Social  Transformations  57 

world  to-day,  without  taking  it  into  account.  It 
has  released  into  the  practical  life  of  man  the 
greatest  of  great  motives — a  love  which  leads  to 
a  disinterested  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  others. 
This  new  life  has  entered  the  lists  for  the  mastery. 
It  has  not  suspended  the  conflict.  It  has  pitched 
it  on  a  higher  key.  The  world  to-day  is  more 
and  more  being  caught  in  the  sweep  of  the  beau- 
tiful ideals  and  simple  life  of  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  races  and  classes  possessing  most 
completely  these  ideals  are  the  superior  races  and 
classes;  and  they  shall  inherit  the  future. 


Some  Friends  of  Labor 


FOR  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  man  that  is  a 
householder,  which  went  out  early  in  the  morning  to  hire 
laborers  into  his  vineyard.  And  when  he  had  agreed  with 
the  laborers  for  a  penny  a  day,  he  sent  them  into  his  vine- 
yard. And  he  went  out  about  the  third  hour,  and  saw 
others  standing  idle  in  the  market-place,  and  said  unto  them, 
Go  ye  also  into  the  vineyard,  and  whatsoever  is  right  I  will 
give  you.  And  they  went  their  way.  Again  he  went  out 
about  the  sixth  and  ninth  hour,  and  did  likewise.  And  about 
the  eleventh  hour  he  went  out,  and  found  others  standing 
idle,  and  saith  unto  them,  Why  stand  ye  here  all  the  day 
idle  ?  They  say  unto  him,  Because  no  man  hath  hired  us. 
He  saith  unto  them,  Go  ye  also  into  the  vineyard ;  and 
whatsoever  is  right,  that  shall  ye  receive.  So  when  even 
was  come,  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  saith  unto  his  steward, 
Call  the  laborers,  and  give  them  their  hire,  beginning  from 
the  last  unto  the  first.  And  when  they  came  that  were 
hired  about  the  eleventh  hour,  they  received  every  man  a 
penny.  But  when  the  first  came,  they  supposed  that  they 
should  have  received  more  ;  and  they  likewise  received  every 
man  a  penny.  And  when  they  had  received  it,  they  mur- 
mured against  the  goodman  of  the  house,  saying,  These  last 
have  wrought  but  one  hour,  and  thou  hast  made  them  equal 
unto  us,  which  have  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day. 
But  he  answered  one  of  them,  and  said,  Friend,  I  do  thee 
no  wrong :  didst  not  thou  agree  with  me  for  a  penny  ? 
Take  that  thine  is,  and  go  thy  way :  I  will  give  unto  this 
last,  even  as  unto  thee.  Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  wh? 
I  will  with  mine  own  ?  Is  thine  eye  evil,  because  I  am 
good? — MATT,  xx,  1-15. 

60 


CHAPTER  III 

Some   Friends   of   Labor 

1.  Cbe  Scbool  of  Cbrift 

IT  is  a  mistake  to  expect  that  ease  and  com- 
fort may  be  brought  to  men  indiscriminately. 
We  need  not  hope  to  do  away  with  toil  and  the 
stints  of  poverty  in  this  world.  Political  insti- 
tutions are  not  intended  to  produce  universal 
plenty.  There  are  years  of  scarcity  in  the  crops, 
that  produce  hunger  and  want.  We  have  gained 
the  victory  in  the  economic  world  when  we  have 
limited  poverty  to  individual  cases ;  when  we  have 
secured  society  from  extended  conditions  of  pov- 
erty. We  shall  never  be  able  to  protect  all  beings 
from  disaster,  or  from  the  consequences  of  im- 
providence and  vice.  There  are  always  those 
who  blame  others  for  their  state  in  life,  when  the 
blame  attaches  to  self. 

Outside  hindrances  to  well-doing  are  often 
great;  but  millions  of  our  people  are  coming 

from    poverty    to    competence    through    these 
61 


62  Christ  in  the  Industries 

things.  Much  temporal  grief  is  born  of  mis- 
calculation, and  of  no  calculation.  Sufficient 
unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof,  does  not  forbid 
looking  ahead.  A  splendid  picture  appeared  in 
one  of  our  monthlies  lately.  A  vigorous  lad  of 
nine  years  is  seated  on  a  bench  beside  a  wall 
counting  his  pennies.  He  is  a  bootblack.  He 
is  barefooted,  and  out  at  the  knees.  He  has  the 
face  of  a  financier,  and  future  prosperity  is  in 
that  picture. 

There  are  those  who  have  not  the  courage  to 
live  within  their  means.  In  their  pride  they  try 
to  make  a  show,  and  they  do  not  know  what 
economy  means.  They  get  a  dollar,  and  spend 
it  unwisely.  The  mere  change  a  young  man 
throws  away,  makes  all  the  difference  between 
independence  and  dependence.  When  expensive 
habits  are  inherited  with  poverty,  there  is  no  way 
to  get  along. 

Economy  is  commendable  in  whoever  has  to 
struggle  with  poverty.  Economy  is  not  penuri- 
ousness.  There  is  a  saving  that  wastes  by  turn- 
ing the  saver  into  a  miser.  Many  go  to  every 
school  in  the  land  but  the  school  of  thrift.  And 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  63 

the  idea  prevails  that  it  takes  a  genius  to  be  a 
financier.  Now  the  basis  of  all  sound  financier- 
ing is  the  knowledge  that  you  can  not  subtract 
three  from  two.  Give  me  the  tobacco  money  of 
any  county,  and  I  will  keep  all  the  poor  in  it  with 
comfort.  A  little  foresight,  a  little  self-denial, 
a  little  counting  of  the  pennies,  a  little  surrender 
of  pride  for  the  sake  of  honesty,  a  little  general- 
ship in  small  things,  will  bring  many  from  the 
ragged  edge  of  penury  to  a  comfortable  living. 
And  there  is  yet  a  higher  motive  against  im- 
providence. Thriftless  habits  produce  deformity 
of  character.  They  carry  down  with  them,  di- 
rectly, business  integrity  and  all  high  aspiration. 
The  majority  of  people  in  these  times  are  not 
living  a  hand-to-mouth  existence.  They  have 
comforts,  with  the  amenities  thrown  in.  They 
have  leisure  for  refinement,  and  time  for  reflec- 
tion. The  average  man  to-day  is  a  king  in  a 
palace  compared  to  that  man  a  thousand  years 
ago.  The  thought  of  the  world  lately  has  been 
turned  toward  the  common  man  and  his  family. 
It  is  a  credit  to  the  philanthropy  of  the  time  that 
it  shows  enthusiasm  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole 


64  Christ  in  the  Industries 

race.  Much  effort  is  now  being  made  to  better 
the  condition  of  the  mass  of  men.  No  scheme 
will  ever  bring  full  content  into  practice;  if,  in- 
deed, any  prevised  scheme  at  all  will  ever  have 
application  in  a  practical  way.  It  is  sufficient  to 
us  that  we  live  in  an  age  of  almost  universal 
questioning  and  experiment  with  the  doctrine  of 
the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  Hu- 
man society  is  a  vast  theme.  The  human  soul 
is  an  essence,  with  such  great  capacities  for 
pleasure  and  pain  that  thought  and  time  and 
effort  devoted  to  it  are  small  things  in  any  one 
period  of  its  progress;  but  that  both  are  now 
being  employed  without  stint  is  a  sign  of  prom- 
ise. We  are  only  impatient  because  the  march 
of  the  race  is  so  slow.  If  we  keep  our  patience, 
and  keep  the  peace,  and  keep  the  law,  we  shall, 
in  some  degree,  help  on  the  work  of  Him  who 
came  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor. 


2.  abe  1bome 

It  ought  to  be  considered  a  shame  for  a  young 
man  in  this  country,  unmarried  and  in  vigor  of 
health,  to  call  himself  poor.  If  he  has  none  but 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  65 

himself  to  provide  for,  his  native  energy  is  to 
him  all  the  inheritance  of  wealth  he  needs.  When 
that  young  man  gets  married,  if  he  marries  a 
woman  without  property,  he  is  called  a  poor 
man — poor  man.  Behold  the  paradox! 

But  if  he  has  come  to  poverty,  he  has  gained 
a  friend  which  is  more  than  wealth.  It  has  been 
made  so  that  the  human  affections  are  of  univer- 
sal application.  They  are  sovereign  over  all 
rank  and  station.  The  springs  of  greatest  earthly 
joy  are  not  in  possessions  or  positions,  but  in 
the  affections.  The  love  of  man  and  woman  is 
both  pure  and  holy.  The  latest  and  best  inter- 
pretation of  the  Song  of  Songs  is,  that  it  cele- 
brates the  passion  of  pure  love.  The  heroine  of 
the  song  is  supposed  to  be  a  beautiful  woman 
of  Northern  Palestine,  whom  Solomon  seeks  to 
win.  The  women  of  his  court  ply  their  blandish- 
ments. His  own  wealth  and  the  honors  of  the 
king's  spouse  are  offered;  but  she  remains  true 
to  her  shepherd  lover.  The  unwavering  love  of 
her  heart  refuses  every  inducement  a  Solomon 
could  offer.  The  affections  of  her  womanly 
heart  triumph  over  the  severest  tests.  The  manly 
5 


66  Christ  in  the  Industries 

shepherd  gets  his  affianced  bride,  and  she  makes 
him  rich — richer  than  Solomon.  This  book  ex- 
alts the  changeless  devotion  of  plighted  souls. 
Out  of  this  mystic  bond  grows  the  marriage  tie. 
Human  love,  if  it  is  worthy  of  its  name,  knows 
not  the  distinctions  that  wealth  brings.  When 
the  domestic  life  is  formed  from  considerations 
of  thrift  alone,  it  is  an  unholy  thing. 

Brother  workman:  while  it  is  perhaps  true 
that  your  wife  did  not  accept  you  because  you 
were  poor;  but,  as  you  know,  she  took  you  in  the 
face  of  the  fact  that  you  were  poor — what  man- 
ner of  man  ought  you  to  be?  If  she  prefers  you 
to  the  richest  man  in  the  State,  what  ought  you 
to  think  of  her?  How  secure  you  ought  to  feel 
in  that  woman's  love!  Success  or  defeat  in  life 
is  with  the  man  half  the  time — and  the  other  half, 
it  is  with  the  woman.  One  of  the  most  pathetic 
pictures  we  ever  saw  was  that  of  a  workman, 
past  middle  life,  and  beginning  to  stoop,  having 
come  home  from  work,  standing  at  the  door  of 
his  humble  cottage,  his  head  against  the  lintel, 
his  tools  on  his  back,  the  door  shut,  wife  away, 
and  underneath  the  words,  "No  welcome." 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  67 

I  see  another  picture,  and  it  is  enough  to 
cheer  the  heart  of  an  anchorite.  It  is  half-past 
five  in  the  morning.  An  honest  workman  sits 
down  to  his  breakfast  with  his  children  about 
him,  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  table  sits  a 
queenly  woman.  God  is  thanked,  and  the  meal 
is  taken.  Then,  with  dinner-bucket  in  hand,  he 
starts  for  his  work.  At  noon  that  kingly  man 
mounts  his  work-bench,  and  opens  that  bucket. 
There  is  a  snowy  napkin  tucked  in  all  around 
the  edges.  Underneath  are  the  choicest  bits  of 
the  morning  meal,  left  off  the  table  for  that 
bucket.  That  man  fishes  to  the  bottom  of  that 
bucket,  and  he  gets  a  lump  in  his  throat.  The 
touch  of  wifely  love  reaches  a  strong  man's 
heart,  and  makes  him  rich  in  his  toil.  He  says 
to  himself:  "Mary,  my  wife,  is  a  darling;  but  she 
will  starve  herself  and  the  children  for  me.  I  '11 
carve  the  middle  of  the  steak  for  her  and  the 
babies  in  the  morning,  or  I  am  not  the  head  of 
the  family."  When  that  man  goes  home  at  night, 
the  gates  of  paradise  swing  open  to  give  him 
twelve  mortal  hours  of  Beulah-land.  Shall  that 
man  envy  any  other  man  on  earth?  Think  you 


68  Christ  in  the  Industries 

that  his  arm  will  not  swing  strongly  in  the  com- 
bat for  bread;  that  he  will  not  look  the  great 
world  in  the  face?  A  good  wife  to  a  man  is 
courage  and  strong-heartedness.  The  daylight 
of  hope  and  purpose  never  went  out  of  an  honest 
man's  heart  when  it  was  held  by  the  holy  com- 
panionship of  the  woman  loved.  A  bad  home- 
life  will  break  the  heart  of  adamant,  and  send 
the  strongest  man  to  despair.  A  fretful  woman, 
who  is  dissatisfied  with  her  lot  because  her  hus- 
band does  not  make  so  much  money  as  some 
other  woman's  husband,  is  not  the  queen  of  a 
home,  but  a  pandemonium.  If  that  man  keeps 
his  temper  to  the  end  of  the  journey,  he  shall 
have  great  exaltation. 

A  good  woman,  the  wife  of  an  honest  and 
industrious  workman,  presides  at  the  fountain  of 
his  happiness;  and  she  wields  a  power,  also,  to 
enhance  and  secure  her  own  happiness.  Her 
breath  is  enterprise  and  thrift  to  him;  and  she 
turns  the  tides  of  all  battles.  Woman's  sphere 
of  action  is  enlarging,  and  it  ought  to  enlarge, 
until  her  opportunities  are  equal  with  man's,  and 
on  equal  terms.  But  when  that  is  said,  we  turn 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  69 

about  to  say  that  the  gospel  ideal,  and  the  eco- 
nomic ideal,  and  nature's  social  law,  is,  man  the 
bread-winner,  and  woman  the  home-builder. 
False  tastes  and  false  ideas  about  the  domestic 
life  are  doing  much  hurt  now.  The  new  woman 
sounds  into  the  ears  of  silly  girls  the  alarum  of 
household  drudgery;  but  the  new  woman  dies 
early,  or  goes  into  innocuous  desuetude,  and 
these  glorious  grandmothers,  who  look  with  clear 
eye  from  the  other  side  of  a  century  of  life,  have 
nearly  every  one  of  them  served  their  day  as 
household  drudges.  These  people,  who  start  out 
in  this  world  to  escape  all  drudgery,  start  on  a 
fool's  errand.  I  shout  in  your  ears  the  heraldry 
of  the  hearthstone.  These  workmen  are  all  civil- 
ized; if  we  can  now  get  them  all  domesticated, 
the  industrial  problem  is  half  solved. 

3,  Xabor  Organisations 

Labor  organizations  arc  voluntary  associ- 
ations designed  to  protect  and  advance  the  con- 
dition of  the  laboring  classes.  But  why  should 
labor  organize,  when  in  this  country  there  is  al- 
ways room  at  the  top?  The  reason  is  in  the  fact 


70  Christ  in  the  Industries 

that  ninety  men  out  of  every  hundred  have  no 
chance  to  reach  the  top.  Provision  must  be 
made  for  the  best  things  on  the  plane,  where 
these  men  are  sure  to  move.  Where  the  interests 
of  the  majority  are  sought,  the  best  place  will  not 
be  at  the  top. 

There  are  thousands  of  business  men  to-day 
who  have  been  very  successful,  and  who  think 
of  their  success,  as  it  is  called,  as  of  doubtful 
value  on  the  whole.  They  long  for  the  content- 
ment they  found  in  the  log-cabin,  with  its  oppor- 
tunities only  for  a  frugal  subsistence.  The  "top" 
in  the  world  of  finance  is  not  a  flowery  kingdom. 
A  poor  man  said  to  a  rich  man,  "I  am  not  rich, 
and  you  are."  The  rich  man  replied,  "Yes;  but 
you  can  sleep  at  night,  and  I  can't."  That  col- 
loquy does  not  stand  for  a  rule;  but  it  stands 
against  the  fiction  that  to  reach  the  top,  as  the 
world  measures  it,  is  to  reach  an  ideal.  Why 
vex  the  workman  by  repeating  the  specious  cry, 
"Rise  in  life,"  when  there  is  little  hope  of  doing 
what  is  meant,  and,  if  done,  it  would  be  of  doubt- 
ful advantage? 

The  laborer  to-day  is  interested  in  whatever 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  71 

improves  his  state  as  a  laborer.  His  desire,  his 
taste,  his  ambition,  is  to  be  a  laborer  in  the  pur- 
suit he  has  chosen.  He  wants  play-room  in  his 
work.  He  wants  an  opportunity  to  make  the 
most  out  of  himself  in  the  direction  of  his  prefer- 
ences. We  have  already  made  the  contention 
that  one  kind  of  business  is  as  great  as  another. 
There  is  no  inferior  pursuit  in  the  industrial 
world.  One  man  has  as  much  right  to  gratify 
his  taste  and  ability  as  a  carpenter,  as  another 
has  as  a  professor.  Ways  and  means  are  to  be 
provided  for  the  carpenter  to  have  all  his  rights, 
and  a  chance  to  build  his  own  life  in  his  own 
business.  A  man's  life  can  be  as  successful  at 
the  carpenter's  bench  as  in  the  pulpit.  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  a  carpenter.  The  state  of  wage- 
earners  is  not  improved  by  lifting  them  out  of 
their  work,  but  by  improving  their  condition  in 
their  work. 

(1)  Labor  Unions  are  designed  to  remove  dis- 
advantages from  the  mass  of  workmen,  and  to 
clear  the  field  for  equal  opportunities. 

(2)  The  organization  of  labor  affords  means 
for  the  exchange  of  industrial  ideas  among  work- 
men. 


72  Christ  in  the  Industries 

(3)  Unorganized  labor  now  has  no  power  to 
protect  itself  against  the  encroachments  of  organ- 
ized capital. 

(4)  Among  the  incidental  advantages  of  or- 
ganized labor  are  the  interests  and  purposes  of 
the  union,  which  seldom  fail  to  give  him  diver- 
sion of  a  healthful  kind  from  the  rut  and  routine 
of  the  ordinary  laborer's  life.    It  affords  him  op- 
portunity to  look  at  his  work  in  a  reflective  way, 
and  see  it  all  through  the  eyes  of  a  variety  of 
counselors.     The  organization,  in  itself  consid- 
ered, if  rightly  used,  adds  to  his  well-being.     It 
gives  him  a  sight  of  some  things  he  would  not 
otherwise  know.     It  is  nearly  sure  to  make  him 
a  broader  man.     As  he  stands  with  his  fellows 
in  the  union,  it  becomes  a  sort  of  guarantee  to 
him  that  he  will  get  advantages  from  the  strength 
of  its  common  understandings  and  principles. 

(5)  The  true  labor  organization  is  not  organ- 
ized to  fight  capital  as  such;  but  to  stand  for  jus- 
tice when  capital  oppresses. 

(6)  Labor  organizations  are  now  undertaking 
much     educational     work     among    themselves. 
They  establish  reading-rooms  and  libraries,  and 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  73 

do  temperance  work.  The  social  life  is  no  incon- 
siderable feature.  It  intensifies  the  greatest  truth 
of  their  great  cause,  the  brotherhood  of  the 
people. 

Community  of  interest  is  the  bond  of  union  in 
all  these  societies.  Identity  of  interest  is  the 
magnet  that  holds  capital  together  as  a  guard 
against  ruinous  competition  with  itself,  and  as 
an  artificial  means  of  raising  prices.  Organized 
labor  is  in  the  same  business.  Labor  and  capital 
also  have  identity  of  interests;  but  strangely  the 
combinations  on  each  side  to  this  time  have  been 
set  to  the  key  of  each  being  the  enemy  of  the 
other.  With  the  rights  of  each  in  reserve,  the 
prosperity  of  labor  is  the  welfare  of  capital,  and 
that  capital  should  have  its  steady  guarantees 
and  commensurate  profits,  is  of  the  highest  self- 
interest  to  workmen.  This  dual  fact  has  not  al- 
ways appeared.  The  immediate  interests  of  both 
food  and  profit  have  held  the  day,  and  the  larger 
interests  of  a  prosperous  collective  life  for  both 
have  not  been  duly  considered.  The  gospel  of 
the  new  age,  the  gospel  of  work,  will  have  a 
vision  to  grasp  secondary  consequences. 


74  Christ  in  the  Industries 

Capital,  to  have  its  way,  would  doubtless 
crush  labor  into  the  earth,  at  least  until  the  time 
when  it  had  crushed  itself  by  over-reaching.  And 
labor  gives  evidence  of  being  as  remorseless  a 
tyrant  as  soon  as  it  gets  to  the  top  of  the  hill.  It 
would  not  do  for  either  to  have  the  whole  day. 
Trusts  aim  to  crush  out  all  who  do  not  come 
into  the  combine,  and  organized  labor  aims  to 
put  successful  hindrances  in  the  way  of  the  non- 
union laborer.  If  wheat  at  $1.75  is  the  result  of 
shortage  in  crops,  it  comes  under  the  healthful 
law  that  shortage  in  supply  increases  the  price; 
but  if  it  is  because  the  world's  wheat  has  been 
bought  up  for  speculative  purposes,  it  means 
that  a  few  invisible  but  omnipresent  millionaires 
are  pinching  pieces  out  of  the  bread  in  the  hands 
of  every  hungry  child  in  all  the  civilized  world. 
How  weak  and  silly  it  seems,  to  say  that  million- 
aires ought  not  to  do  that.  But,  sirs,  Govern- 
ment has  found  no  way  yet  to  deal  successfully 
with  that  feature  in  our  industrial  life.  But  all 
have  come  to  see  that  there  is  a  point  to  personal 
liberty  in  the  use  of  capital,  to  which  it  ought  not 
be  permitted  to  go.  Not  many  years  hence  this 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  75 

new  function  of  government  will  be  operative. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  morally  tenable  that 
the  union  should  say  to  the  non-union  worker, 
"Join  the  union,  or  you  shall  not  work."  That 
position  will  finally  break  down  before  the  fair- 
minded.  I  see  no  signs  of  a  monopoly  of  morals 
on  either  side;  but  I  see  signs  of  moderation  and 
of  a  common  understanding. 

4.  Gbe  Ibonorable  Bniploger  of  Habor 

Personal  liberty  in  the  industrial  world  has 
run  to  extremes  in  America.  The  temptation  of 
those  who  have  power,  which  they  have  secured 
by  extra  talent  or  genius,  is  to  use  it  for  self- 
interest  alone.  It  will  doubtless  appear  as  a 
necessity,  that  some  limit  must  be  put  on  individ- 
ual capacity,  working  under  law,  in  the  industrial 
world.  Some  men  have  such  vast  capacity  for 
getting  the  substance  of  this  world  into  their 
hands  that  the  control  of  such  accumulation  be- 
comes a  constant  menace  to  the  public.  This  is 
the  new  form  in  which  tyranny  is  appearing;  and 
so  fully  alive  are  the  people  becoming  to  its 
dangers  that  it  is  sure  to  be  checkmated  not  far 
ahead. 


7  6  Christ  in  the  Industries 

When  we  have  said  this  much  against  com- 
bined capital,  we  have  measured  the  extent  of 
righteous  revulsion  against  individual  capitalists. 
The  most  profitable  man  in  the  community  usu- 
ally is  the  man  who  has  become  the  employer  of 
labor. 

The  man  who  builds  industrial  enterprises,  and 
is  constantly  turning  his  thirty  or  forty  or  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  toward  his  own  thrift 
and  the  thrift  of  those  who  depend  on  such  men 
for  their  own  living,  is  the  constant  and  substan- 
tial friend  of  labor.  The  majority  of  wage-earn- 
ers depend  on  the  business  success  of  the  local 
capitalists,  who,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases, 
acquire  only  enough  capital  to  make  business  a 
success,  and  not  enough  to  make  their  posses- 
sions an  oppression.  How  foolish  and  short- 
sighted in  these  instances  for  wage-earners  to 
consider  themselves  on  one  side  of  a  great  battle 
to  make  their  employers  feel  their  power!  How 
jealous  workmen  ought  to  be  of  the  establish- 
ment of  the  local  capitalist — how  truly  desirous 
that  he  should  make  money,  and  be  able  to  keep 
his  business  on  a  sound  basis!  When  a  man  be- 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  77 

comes  so  related  to  an  establishment  that  in  it 
is  his  living,  all  the  promptings  of  self-interest 
would  make  him  desire  its  prosperity.  It  is 
usually  so  in  these  times  that  workmen  know 
about  the  profits  of  the  employer  of  labor;  and  to 
urge  wages  to  the  point  where  the  business 
breaks,  is  suicidal.  The  enmity  of  laborers 
against  the  capitalists  who  invest  in  legitimate 
enterprises  for  the  purpose  of  legitimate  profits, 
is  both  foolish  and  wicked.  It  is  to  the  interest 
of  labor  everywhere,  to  keep  to  the  maximum 
the  number  of  smaller  investors  of  funds.  Local 
capital  employing  local  labor  is  the  ideal  for 
workmen.  There  needs  to  be  work  everywhere 
for  those  who  prefer  to  be  wage-earners.  Their 
highest  interest,  therefore,  is  to  foster  home  cap- 
ital; not  in  the  sense  of  giving  it  all  the  profits 
above  a  bare  subsistence,  but  in  the  sense  of  mak- 
ing it  matter  of  common  sense  not  to  kill  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg. 

5.  Gbe  Spirit  of  Democracy 

A  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
for  the  people — that  is  democracy.  More  and 
more  is  the  cause  of  labor  being  bound  up  with 


78  Christ  in  the  Industries 

democratic  movements.  It  has  not  been  long 
since  whole  sections  of  the  industrial  world  were 
arrayed  against  each  other,  through  prejudice 
and  a  lack  of  knowledge;  and  they  are  now  com- 
ing together,  and  are  seeking  a  unity  of  interest, 
which  they  feel  is  surely  growing  into  larger  pro- 
portions for  the  future.  The  most  impressive 
movement  of  the  time  is  the  positive  tendency 
of  men  to  make  common  cause;  not  for  the  few, 
but  for  the  many.  Among  the  nations  of  Europe, 
even  where  all  interests  might  be  expected  to  be 
still  under  the  spell  of  the  old  monarchies,  and 
where  the  rights  of  the  lowest  man  not  long  ago 
did  not  disturb  anybody  but  himself,  it  is  evident 
that  there  is  a  slow  yet  irresistible  advance  toward 
a  federation  of  human  interests,  with  a  view  to 
bettering  the  condition  of  the  common  people. 
A  deep  unity  now  binds  all  social  interests  to- 
gether. Mutual  dependence  is  the  great  lesson 
of  to-day.  All  economic  affairs  are  now  so  woven 
and  threaded  together,  that  the  workmen  on  one 
side  of  the  continent  are  quickly  affected  by  any 
sort  of  disaster  befalling  the  workmen  on  the 
other  side.  It  will  soon  be  so  with  the  whole 
world. 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  79 

A  mighty  current  of  democracy  is  slowly 
moving  the  races.  It  is  an  influence  too  great 
to  be  checked;  but  it  must  have  guidance.  The 
skies  are  not  clear;  but  the  humblest  toiler  may 
take  hope  to-day.  The  humanities  are  to 
triumph,  and  men  are  to  be  chief  over  things 
and  possessions. 

6.  5esus  Cbrist  anD  tbe  Social  ©rfcer 

The  greatest  friends  and  foes  of  society  are 
those  which  sway  it  fundamentally.  If  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Republic  are  steady,  the  Nation 
is  safe.  If  right  principles  pervade  the  industrial 
world,  there  will  rise  to  the  surface  laws  and 
institutions  which  express  constantly  better  and 
better  conditions.  We  shall  not  be  able  to  con- 
struct ideal  conditions  instanter.  The  best  social 
conditions  are  not  constructive  at  all.  They  are 
creative  and  formative.  Society  is  a  life.  All  its 
expansions  and  all  its  better  forms  are  under 
the  laws  of  its  life.  Right  ideas  and  right  prin- 
ciples put  into  the  life  of  society  do  their  work 
finally.  That  is  the  defense  for  some  of  the 
things  I  say  here,  which,  for  the  present,  are 
little  more  than  dreams. 


8o  Christ  in  the  Industries 

Guizot  says  that  civilization  reveals  itself  by 
two  symptoms — the  progress  of  society,  and  the 
progress  of  individuals.  He  puts  the  progress  of 
society  first,  as  if  it  were  the  initiative;  that  is, 
the  first  thing  to  take  place.  He  follows  this 
directly  with  a  discussion  of  the  influences  of 
Christianity  on  the  individual  man.  Christianity, 
he  declares,  did  not  address  itself  to  social  con- 
ditions first,  but  disclaimed  all  interference  with 
it;  and  yet  it  was  "one  of  the  greatest  promoters 
of  civilization,  because  it  changed  the  interior 
condition  of  man,  his  opinions,  his  sentiments; 
because  it  has  regenerated  his  moral,  his  intel- 
lectual nature."  Social  effects  and  conditions 
finally  converge  in  the  individual  man.  They 
all  run  back  to  that  before  they  stop. 

Institutions  in  themselves  are  pitiful  depend- 
ents. The  strength  of  American  character  meas- 
ures the  strength  of  American  institutions. 
There  can  be  no  satisfactory  outside  life  in  this 
world  without  a  satisfactory  inside  life.  Desir- 
able social  states  and  righteous  laws  were  never 
erected  or  made  to  stand  over  an  unrighteous 
people.  The  sunrise  is  not  superficial;  the  whole 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  8 1 

earth  has  to  move  to  get  it.  As  the  universe  is 
the  expression  of  God's  purpose  and  thought,  so 
human  society  is  the  expression  of  what  man 
really  is.  If  you  would  change  it,  you  must 
change  him.  Many  good  purposes  toward  social 
amelioration  fail  because  the  thing  devised  is  not 
equal  to  the  work  to  be  done.  Charles  I,  of  Eng- 
land, had  an  ambition  to  do  great  things  for  his 
kingdom.  Personally,  he  was  accomplished;  and 
he  undertook  to  exalt  the  people  by  court  enter- 
tainments, plays,  music,  and  art.  He  constituted 
a  splendid  outside  Church  equipment;  but  he 
made  the  mistake  of  addressing  himself  to  the 
superficial  in  man.  The  few  advantages  of  polish 
in  the  things  he  did  were  overbalanced  by  the 
hollowness  and  lack  of  seriousness  in  his  work. 
There  were  a  few  advantages  in  superficial  man- 
ners and  show,  but  at  the  expense  of  drawing 
attention  from  that  quality  of  work  for  society 
which  alone  abides.  The  English  mind  finally 
revolted  against  this  nonsense  court  effort  of  try- 
ing to  regulate  man  into  higher  conditions 
through  the  sham  and  dash  of  high  life. 

The  saviors  of  the  masses  to-day  are  the  men 


82  Christ  in  the  Industries 

and  women  who  ordain  religious  regeneration 
in  the  masses.  The  structure  of  society  can  not 
be  changed  except  from  within.  All  industrial 
strife  will  have  its  experiments  and  its  testing 
times,  and  it  will  have  its  turns  and  reverses  of 
fortune,  with  its  evolutions  of  form;  but  if  it  cul- 
minates in  higher  stages,  or  in  any  positive  ad- 
vance, it  will  be  because  there  has  been  invest- 
ment of  character  in  the  personalities  behind  it 
all.  The  renewed  personal  life  is  the  saving 
element  in  every  community  life.  There  is  not 
a  record  in  history  where  religious  regeneration 
has  not  ordained  better  social  conditions.  It  is 
doing  so  to-day.  William  Arthur  says:  "Both 
the  Papist  and  Positivist  schools  precognize 
schemes  for  the  reconstruction  of  society.  Our 
Lord  and  his  apostles  sought  its  regeneration. 
They  did  not  look  on  it  as  one  of  those  structures 
made  with  hands,  which  can  be  pulled  down  and 
built  again;  but  as  a  structure  built  without 
hands,  fitly  joined  together,  not  by  labor  from 
without,  but  by  life  force  from  within."  So,  then, 
the  structural  forces  that  build  society  lie  in  the 
things  that  build  character.  What  shall  perpetu- 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  83 

ate  our  institutions?  Christian  character.  What 
shall  furnish  the  greatest  guarantees  of  safe  pas- 
sage through  all  industrial  perplexity?  Christian 
character. 

It  appears  to  me  that  this  whole  interest  in 
the  common  man  to-day  is  a  gospel  product. 
As  open-minded  men,  you  are  willing  to  consider 
a  single  fact.  All  the  ancient  empires  despised 
the  common  people.  The  masses  threw  away 
their  lives  at  the  will  of  a  despot,  and  they  were 
forced  to  labor  without  remuneration.  Human 
life  has  but  little  value  in  China  to-day.  The 
advent  of  Western  rulers  in  India  has  brought 
more  appreciation  to  life;  but  life  is  not  prized 
in  India  where  the  gospel  has  not  gone.  It  is 
said  that  Rome  never  had  the  brooding  calm  of 
a  childhood.  Justice  was  extolled  indeed,  and 
it  was  embraced  in  a  great  civil  code ;  but  Roman 
justice  chills  the  blood.  The  Roman  civil  spirit 
was  cold,  and  heartless,  and  cruel,  and  sangui- 
nary. The  spiritual  impulses,  so  essential  to  a 
true  national  life,  were  absent.  She  had  a  pan- 
theon of  conquered  deities.  Religion  with  her 
was  an  underplay.  Rome  was  never  more  than  a 


84  Christ  in  the  Industries 

military  society  held  together  by  outward  force. 
Splendid  cities  arose  from  the  lootings  of  war. 
Highways  and  aqueducts  were  built  by  captives 
under  the  lash  of  the  slave  whip.  The  proudest 
days  of  Rome  were  the  days  in  which  human 
sorrow  had  its  most  fearful  culmination.  Splen- 
did charnel-house!  Proud  mausoleum!  More 
instructive  to-day  than  when  it  was  better  kept, 
but  not  half  so  full  of  dead  men's  bones !  Above 
all  this  ancient  time  why  do  we  so  value  human 
life?  Why  do  we  contend  for  the  rights  of  the 
common  laborer?  Why  do  we  plead  the  cause 
of  the  underling?  Why  do  we  guard  against 
famine  and  plague?  Why  do  we  build  hospitals 
and  almshouses?  Why  do  we  undertake  to  nurse 
the  weakest  into  strength  again?  It  is  because 
we  have  come  to  put  a  very  high  estimate  on 
human  life.  This  estimate  we  have,  runs  back 
into  the  gospel.  Jesus  Christ  first  held  it.  Jesus 
Christ  put  a  price  on  human  life  when  he  bowed 
his  head  on  Calvary.  The  worth  of  a  soul  moved 
God  to  the  momentous  issues  of  redemption. 

Jesus  Christ  has  never  had  a  fair  hearing  in 
the  industrial  world.    The  kingdom  of  Christ  has 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  85 

no  significance  to  a  majority  of  these  financiers; 
and  they  have  set  the  temper  of  trade.  The 
broader  social  meanings  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  seem  strange  and  hidden  to  these  masses 
of  men  as  they  contend  and  fight  for  bread. 
They  see  injustice  over  them,  and  in  the  grim 
and  iron  struggle  the  humanities  seem  dead.  The 
wheels  of  the  social  machine  grind  on,  and  in 
their  efforts  to  keep  from  under  they  get  sullen 
and  maddened  from  all  friendship,  and  they 
doubt  the  love  of  the  Divine  Christ. 

With  these  brothers  in  the  strife  for  bread, 
is  there  no  chance  to  get  them  to  stop  long 
enough  to  look  each  other  in  the  face?  Arrested 
fellowship  has  brought  all  this  about;  and  if  the 
strife  goes  on,  the  greatest  question  directly  will 
not  be  one  of  rights,  but  the  fact  that  all  brotherly 
feeling  is  dead.  With  the  brotherly  feeling  would 
go  the  humanities,  and  with  the  humanities  both 
righteousness  and  truth,  and  with  these  national 
character.  The  brotherly  feeling  born  of  the 
Christ-love  is  not  a  piece  of  sentiment;  it  is  a 
primal  element  in  all  good  government.  It  but- 
tresses all  law  and  all  justice,  and  enthrones  order 


86  Christ  in  the  Industries 

and  secures  prosperity.  Have  you  faith  that 
business  can  ever  be  spiritualized?  Do  you  not 
see  that  the  very  desirability  and  need  of  the 
supernaturalism  of  the  gospel  becomes  a  part 
of  its  great  reason  just  now?  Can  you  think  of  a 
greater  and  more  powerfully  redeeming  force 
to  project  into  this  sordid  age  than  the  active 
principle  of  the  Christ-life,  which  is  love?  What 
force  sooner  than  this  will  set  things  in  order 
and  stop  this  confusion,  produce  a  law-abiding 
citizenship,  cleanse  politics,,  send  the  saloon  to 
perdition,  drive  the  sharper  from  business,  bring 
about  plainer  living  with  higher  thinking,  estab- 
lish social  righteousness  for  rich  and  poor  alike, 
and  enthrone  fraternity  in  the  heart  of  man? 

The  chief  players  in  the  national  game  of 
finance  laugh  at  these  questions.  The  Athenians 
called  Paul  a  babbler.  Romanism  first  laughed 
at  Luther.  The  cockneys  had  a  great  laugh  when 
John  Knox  began  to  pray;  but  the  prayers  of 
John  Knox  brought  thunderbolts  from  the  sky 
to  startle  all  England.  The  Church  of  England 
folks,  and  all  the  people  of  the  eminent  propri- 
eties, were  amused  at  the  irregularities  and  un- 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  87 

necessary  zeal  of  the  Wesleys  and  of  Whitefield;. 
but  the  spiritual  life  these  men  awakened  changed 
the  temper  of  English  thought,  and  saved  Eng- 
land from  a  French  Revolution. 

Shall  men  never  learn  that  the  plain  gospel 
has  made  the  deepest  law  of  his  history?  In 
this  loosening  of  character  in  the  love  of  money, 
there  are  no  palliatives  that  will  cure.  There  is 
no  fixing  of  things,  no  readjustment  of  political 
or  social  forms  to  take  the  place  of  moral  reno- 
vation, and  that  is  a  work  on  character.  The 
true  statesman  will  not  be  turned  from  these  laws 
of  a  nation's  life,  which  have  their  springs  in  the 
gospel,  and  which  give  constant  streams  of  fresh 
blood  to  the  social  body,  and  stability  and 
strength  to  all  civil  forms.  Honor,  justice,  faith, 
— these  are  the  voices  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  this 
opulent  civilization. 

7.  Social  Specialisation  tn  tbe  Cburcb 

The  kind  of  organized  expression  that  the 
gospel  has  in  this  country  is  an  important  con- 
cern. The  Church  here  must  not  contradict  the 
genius  and  spirit  of  popular  government.  The 


88  Christ  in  the  Industries 

same  spirit  which  pervades  the  public  mind 
politically,  will  control  it  religiously  to  a  large 
extent.  There  can  be  no  voice  from  the  ecclesia 
now,  which  could  overthrow  the  community 
feelings  of  the  people. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  early  Churches 
were  pure  democracies.  Among  themselves  they 
obliterated  everything  of  rank,  or  caste,  or  race; 
because  one  of  the  plainest  things  in  the  life  and 
teaching  of  the  Master  was  that  he  removed 
every  obstruction  between  himself  and  the  uni- 
versal heart.  He  persistently  refused  to  recog- 
nize the  arbitrary  customs  which  divided  men, 
and  that  in  a  time  when  authority  and  wealth 
were  unscrupulous  and  arrogant,  and  when  the 
class-lines  which  centuries  of  habit  had  made 
distinct,  and  which  were  never  more  rigid  and 
unyielding.  The  world  at  that  time  was  a  sort  of 
unbridled  centaur;  that  is,  it  had  a  human  head 
and  an  animal  body.  There  were  a  few  intellect- 
ual brilliants,  but  underneath  was  a  black  em- 
pire of  the  enslaved.  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
would  remove  themselves  in  holy  horror  from 
publicans  and  sinners,  when  their  own  houses 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  89 

were  full  of  harlots.  Christ's  words  burned  as  he 
said:  "Woe  unto  you  scribes,  Pharisees,  hypo- 
crites, for  ye  devour  widows'  houses,  and  for  a 
pretense  make  long  prayers;  therefore  ye  shall 
receive  the  greater  damnation."  Jesus  without 
hesitation  went  down  through  Samaria  into  Gali- 
lee, and  when  the  astonished  woman  said,  "How 
is  it  that  thou,  a  Jew,  speakest  to  me,  who  am  a 
woman  of  Samaria?"  Jesus  only  directs  her  at- 
tention to  Him  who  is  the  Father  of  us  all. 
When  the  lawyer  wanted  to  know  who  his  neigh- 
bor was,  he  received  for  an  answer  the  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan.  Christ  pays  as  much 
attention  to  the  poor  woman  who  washes  his 
feet  with  her  tears  as  to  Nicodemus  the  doctor 
of  laws.  Christ  goes  to  the  transfiguration,  and 
comes  down  to  gird  himself  with  a  towel.  He 
feeds  the  thousands,  and  then  goes  into  the 
mountain  to  pray.  He  refuses  the  crown  of 
Israel;  but  he  takes  little  children  in  his  arms  to 
bless  them.  Christ  begins  his  public  ministry 
by  saying,  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 
because  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  the  poor."  After  this  inaugural  of  his 


90  Christ  in  the  Industries 

gospel,  he  says,  "Go  tell  John  what  things  ye 
have  seen  and  heard;  how  that  the  blind  see,  the 
lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear, 
the  dead  are  raised,  and  to  the  poor  the  gospel 
is  preached." 

Jesus  Christ  had  no  adroit  diplomacies;  he 
had  no  settlings  of  precedence;  he  did  not  rise 
above  these  angry  differences  among  men;  he 
buried  them.  The  color-line  he  rubs  out.  There 
is  no  black  man  in  Christ;  no  yellow  man;  no 
red  man;  no  white  man.  We  are  all  one.  "For 
by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into  one  body, 
whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  we  be 
bond  or  free,  and  have  all  been  made  to  drink 
into  one  Spirit."  "There  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in 
Christ  Jesus."  The  gospel  brings  men  together 
on  a  plane  where  race  affinities  do  not  rasp.  It 
brings  capital  and  labor  together  above  the  capi- 
talist's head. 

Many  of  the  tendencies  of  a  complex  industrial 
life  are  toward  an  extreme  differentiation  of 
classes.  So,  according  to  taste,  and  rarity  of  skill, 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  91 

and  divergent  pursuits,  men  divide  into  guilds, 
and  clubs,  and  lodges,  and  protective  organiza- 
tions; but  the  gospel  brings  all  the  craftsmen 
together  as  workmen  and  servants  of  the  human 
race.  Religion  is  the  common  element  which 
makes  them  acquainted  and  also  akin. 

One  of  the  most  serious  incidental  hindrances 
to  the  progress  of  the  gospel  is  the  palpable  fact 
that  many  of  the  local  Churches  in  this  country 
have  been  like  the  class  organizations,  following 
the  line  of  least  resistance.  The  Churches  show 
a  very  prominent  social  specialization.  There 
are  uptown  Churches  and  downtown  Churches. 
There  are  society  Churches  and  laborers' 
Churches.  There  are  Churches  for  the  rich  and 
Churches  for  the  poor.  It  is  only  to  be  expected 
that  people  with  select  social  sympathies  should 
desire  that  they  should  receive  the  religious  sanc- 
tions, and  those  sanctions  may  be  rightfully  given 
when  these  special  feelings  are  only  socially  ex- 
pressed; but  it  is  a  great  disaster  that  the  life  of 
the  Church  be  touched  with  such  a  spirit,  for  the 
plain  reason  that  socially  we  may  have  some 
rights  of  preference,  and  religiously  we  have  not. 


92  Christ  in  the  Industries 

Any  man,  white  or  black,  is  my  brother  if  he  be 
Christ's  man,  and  I  am  obliged  to  fraternize. 

That  any  of  our  Churches  should  have  dis- 
tinctly graded  social  features,  is  a  distasteful  idea 
to  workmen.  The  self-respecting  workman  does 
not  wish  to  be  patronized.  He  does  not  wish 
social  elevation  offered  him.  And  he  will  not 
suffer  the  prevailing  social  pulse  of  a  Church 
politely  to  neglect  him.  He  is  no  better  pleased 
with  a  Church  made  up  of  his  own  class.  The 
offense  against  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  is  not  miti- 
gated by  that  fact.  The  house  of  God  and  its 
work  should  be  the  place  where  no  distinctions 
whatever  are  made;  where  the  passport  to  all 
rights,  and  privileges,  and  welcomes,  is  a  saintly 
walk  before  God.  Wherever  employers  and  the 
employed  worship  freely  at  the  same  altars,  the 
labor  problem  is  already  solved.  The  labor 
problem  stands  solved  in  every  healthful  Church 
life  in  America.  Faith  is  always  superficial  until 
it  gets  above  working  along  lines  of  social  taste. 
The  Church  which  dares  to  put  its  rich  and  poor 
together  in  the  same  seats,  and  calls  them  to 
drink  the  sacramental  emblems  from  the  same 


Some  Friends  of  Labor  93 

cup,  is  the  only  Church  to-day  qualified  for  its 
work — parity  of  sacred  right,  parity  of  privilege, 
parity  of  fellowship.  The  Church  which  banishes 
the  barriers,  which  courts  favor  neither  of  the 
rich  nor  the  poor,  but  shows  Christ  the  Savior  of 
sinners  to  all  alike,  will  have  a  large  mission  in 
settling  the  perplexities  of  the  industries. 


Some  Industrial  Problems 


9.S 


NEITHER  was  there  any  among  them  that  lacked :  for  as 
many  as  were  possessors  of  lands  or  houses  sold  them,  and 
brought  the  prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid 
them  down  at  the  apostles'  feet:  and  distribution  was  made 
unto  every  man  according  as  he  had  need.  And  Joses,  who 
by  the  apostles  was  surnamed  Barnabas,  (which  is,  being  in- 
terpreted, The  son  of  consolation,)  a  Levite,  and  of  the 
country  of  Cyprus,  having  land,  sold  it,  and  brought  the 
money,  and  laid  it  at  the  apostles'  feet. — ACTS  iv,  34-37. 

But  a  certain  man  named  Ananias,  with  Sapphira  his  wife, 
sold  a  possession,  and  kept  back  part  of  the  price,  his  wife 
also  being  privy  to  it,  and  brought  a  certain  part,  and  laid 
it  at  the  apostles'  feet.  But  Peter  said,  Ananias,  why  hath 
Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  keep 
back  part  of  the  price  of  the  land?  While  it  remained,  was 
it  not  thine  own  ?  and  after  it  was  sold,  was  it  not  in  thine 
own  power?  why  hast  thou  conceived  this  thing  in  thine 
heart?  thou  hast  not  lied  unto  men,  but  unto  God.  And 
Ananias  hearing  these  words  fell  down,  and  gave  up  the 
ghost :  and  great  fear  came  on  all  them  that  heard  these 
things.  And  the  young  men  arose,  wound  him  up,  and  car- 
ried him  out,  and  buried  him.  And  it  was  about  the  space 
of  three  hours  after,  when  his  wife,  not  knowing  what  was 
done,  came  in.  And  Peter  answered  unto  her,  Tell  me 
whether  ye  sold  the  land  for  so  much  ?  And  she  said,  Yea, 
for  so  much.  Then  Peter  said  unto  her,  How  is  it  that  ye 
have  agreed  together  to  tempt  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord?  be- 
hold, the  feet  of  them  which  have  buried  thy  husband  are 
at  the  door,  and  shall  carry  thee  out.  Then  fell  she  down 
straightway  at  his  feet,  and  yielded  up  the  ghost :  and  the 
young  men  came  in,  and  found  her  dead,  and,  carrying  her 
forth,  buried  her  by  her  husband.  And  great  fear  came 
upon  all  the  church,  and  upon  as  many  as  heard  these 
things. — ACTS  v,  i-n. 

96 


CHAPTER  IV 

Some  Industrial  Problems 

I.  "Radical  Socialism 

ONE  of  the  significant  features  of  Western 
civilization  is  the  growth  in  it  of  what  is  known 
as  Socialism.  The  term  itself  is  a  broad  one — 
broad  enough  to  include  the  industries — but  for 
definite  meaning  it  needs  classification.  That 
can  not  be  attempted  in  these  pages.  It  were 
better  to  use  the  term  here  as  one  standing  for 
a  general  social  movement,  whose  special  char- 
acteristic is  opposition  to  the  established  order. 
The  term  at  first  was  a  hated  one.  In  its  radical 
forms  it  stood  for  the  overthrow  of  society  as 
we  now  accept  it,  without  being  at  all  particular 
as  to  the  method.  It  therefore  received  the  re- 
sentment of  civil  governments.  It  had  visions, 
with  wild  and  revolutionary  schemes  of  the  most 
startling  character.  But  it  also  had  in  it  that 
which  made  it  attractive  to  many  minds.  The 
cry  of  the  oppressed  was  in  it — a  cry  which  has 
7  97 


98  Christ  in  the  Indiistries 

always  awakened  sympathy  where  the  doctrines 
of  the  Christ  have  gone.  The  socialist  spirit  has 
had  a  steady  growth  from  its  beginning.  Its  first 
forms  were  largely  negative.  It  was  believed  that 
the  present  order  and  form  of  human  society 
was  in  the  way  of  all  socialistic  ideals,  and  that 
it  must  first  be  gotten  out  of  the  way.  It  had  for 
its  simple  negative  philosophy  the  proposition, 
"Do  not  begin  to  build  until  the  place  for  the 
foundation  has  been  cleaned."  Though  nega- 
tive, it  was  not  altogether  non-resistant.  There 
was  advocacy  of  force  in  defiance  of  government. 
It  repudiated  all  lessons  from  the  logic  of  events. 
It  scorned  sentimental  politics  and  history.  It 
made  its  appeals  to  ignorance  and  passion.  It 
was  as  sanguinary  as  the  authorities  would  allow. 

This  was  the  spirit  of  radical  socialism  in  Ger- 
many. This  was  the  meaning  of  Communism  in 
France,  which  showed  itself  in  such  violence  in 
1871.  This  was  the  meaning  of  Nihilism  in 
Russia,  as  the  term  itself  implies. 

The  later  socialist  spirit  has  largely  repudiated 
force  in  the  overthrow  of  existing  things,  on  the 


Some  Industrial  Problems  99 

ground  that  an  innovation  in  human  society  can 
not  succeed  by  force. 

Here  is  the  general  negative  policy  of  Social- 
ism: 

(1)  The  abolition  of  property. 

(2)  Social  liberty  rather  than  individual  lib- 
erty. 

(3)  The  abolition  of  class  distinctions. 

(4)  The  abolition  of  inheritance. 

(5)  The  abolition  of  children. 

(6)  The  abolition  of  marriage. 

(7)  Legislation  entirely  in  the  interests  of  the 
laborer. 

(8)  Abolition  of  wages  as  pay  for  labor. 

It  is  but  fair  to  say,  however,  that  the  lapse 
of  years  has  very  greatly  modified  many  of  these 
radical  features;  and  with  the  mass  of  socialists 
to-day  there  is  more  of  reason,  and  less  of  wild 
scheming  for  an  earthly  Utopia.  The  whole  spirit 
of  socialism  in  Europe  has  become  more  moder- 
ate, and  its  growth  has  been  accelerated  by  that 
fact.  It  has  shown  frequent  surprises  in  recent 
elections.  There  are  large  territories  in  which 


ioo  Christ  in  the  Industries 

it  has  come  to  recognition  and  so-called  respect- 
ability, and  evidently  as  a  whole  it  is  to  have  a 
destiny. 

The  socialistic  elements  in  American  life  can 
not  be  regarded  as  altogether  an  undesirable  fea- 
ture. The  socialistic  idea  here,  in  general,  pre- 
sents itself  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  Eng- 
lish social  movements.  Our  social  theories,  like 
the  purely  political  forms  of  our  Government,  are 
more  like  the  English  than  the  French  or  the 
German.  We  have  never  had  as  radical  expres- 
sions of  socialism  in  America  as  have  been  wit- 
nessed in  Europe.  We  have,  perhaps,  not  had 
as  aggravating  conditions  to  bring  it  about.  The 
pent-up  fires  here  are  under  control.  Our  people 
are  all  citizens,  with  a  voice  in  the  Government; 
and  the  responsibility  of  preserving  it,  as  well  as 
the  power  to  bring  about  changes  for  the  possible 
better,  make  our  people  conservative. 

2.  Unceptive  Bmerican  Socialism 

The  earlier  socialistic  experiments  in  this 
country  are  associated  with  a  few  significant 
names,  high  in  literature  and  statesmanship. 


Some  Industrial  Problems  101 

William  H.  Channing,  George  William  Curtis, 
Charles  A.  Dana,  John  S.  Dwight,  James  Russell 
Lowell,  D.  S.  Oliphant,  W.  W.  Story,  John  G. 
Whittier,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  Albert  Brisbane, 
Theodore  Parker,  Fanny  Wright,  Elizabeth  P. 
Peabody,  Horace  Greeley,  and  others, — all  of 
these,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  accepted  social- 
ism as  the  early  dream  of  their  lives.  Nearly  all 
of  these,  also,  after  a  time  of  thought  and  ex- 
periment, turned  aside  to  follow  the  tested  and 
accepted  methods  in  which  the  mass  of  mankind 
believe. 

But  the  genius  of  these  names,  rising  up  to 
advocate  socialistic  theories,  all  the  way  between 
1825  and  1840,  not  only  affected  human  thought 
in  and  about  the  mostly  sporadic  efforts  which 
were  made  toward  a  better  life,  but,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  they  influenced  the  thought  of  the 
nation.  Socialistic  periodicals  were  established, 
and  these  minds  furnished  them  with  articles. 
The  New  York  Tribune  had  at  one  time  a  depart- 
ment of  socialism,  which  did  effective  work  in 
propagating  the  doctrines. 

The  history  of  inceptive  socialism  in  this  coun- 


IO2  Christ  in  the  Industries 

try  focalizes  about  two  names,  Charles  Fourier 
and  Robert  Owen. 

Fourier  was  born  in  France  just  before  the 
American  Revolution,  and  at  the  close  of  that 
war  France  was  pushing  his  theories  to  their 
issues.  He  had  a  brilliant  and  erratic  mind.  He 
was  a  philosophical  socialist  of  high  order.  In 
brief  and  crude  statement  his  theory  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

In  the  nature  and  constitution  of  things  there 
are  laws  of  attraction  working  from  within  out- 
ward, which  are  sufficiently  powerful  when 
known  and  applied,  to  equalize  themselves  in 
practice,  and  bring  order  and  harmony  every- 
where. As  particles  of  matter  are  attracted  to 
form  the  earth,  and  as  the  solar  system  moves  on 
without  jarring  and  friction  by  like  silent  influ- 
ences, so  in  society;  if  the  operation  of  the  har- 
monic forces  is  given  room,  all  such  conditions 
as  want  and  poverty  and  strife  and  selfishness 
and  dishonesty  will  give  way,  and  absolute  peace 
and  harmony  will  prevail  on  the  earth.  To  give 
free  course  to  these  principles  of  attraction,  which 
are  to  do  away  with  the  evils  of  the  world,  he 


Some  Industrial  Problems  103 

resorts  to  a  critical  analysis  of  man's  nature,  and 
he  discusses  very  fully  the  relation  he  holds  to 
human  society.  It  is  a  far-drawn  and  obscure 
system,  with  features  in  it  in  which  the  author 
has  evidently  not  thought  himself  through.  But 
he  is  animated  with  the  highest  motives,  and 
shows  a  large  love  for  the  race.  He  has  in  mind 
not  only  the  practical  and  possible  by  tested 
methods,  but  the  highest  conceivable  by  his  own 
methods.  He  stumbled  and  fell  over  the  stub- 
born fact  that  the  thoughts  of  the  brain  are  not 
all  to  be  realized  in  practical  life.  He  undertook 
to  bring  man  up  to  what  he  ought  to  be,  by 
methods  which  leave  out  of  account  what  he  is. 
That  was  the  weakness  of  his  great  nature,  and 
the  failure  of  his  system.  Fourier's  doctrines 
were  brought  to  this  country  by  Albert  Bris- 
bane, and  Victor  Considerant,  and  others;  and 
there  were  repeated  attempts  to  put  them  into 
practice  in  the  experiments  which  were  tried 
through  the  Eastern  and  Northern  States  during 
the  period  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

Robert  Owen — a  man  of  great  force  of  char- 
acter— first  tried  a  scheme  for  the  betterment  of 


104  Christ  in  the  Industries 

workmen,  in  the  shape  of  a  co-operative  society 
in  New  Lanark,  England.  'There  is  no  doubt 
about  its  marvelous  success  for  a  time.  His 
achievement  among  sturdy  and  steady-going 
English  workmen  threw  a  glamour  over  his  mind, 
and  he  came  to  America  a  talented  dreamer. 
Some  slight  friction  with  the  ecclesiastics  in  his 
New  Lanark  enterprise  was  doubtless  the  occa- 
sion of  his  revulsion  against  religion,  which  was 
followed  by  a  practical  repudiation  of  all  faith, 
and  the  attempted  construction  of  a  social  organ- 
ization leaving  God  out  of  the  estimate. 

He  began  with  eighty  souls  on  the  banks  of 
the  Wabash,  in  New  Harmony,  Indiana.  The 
movement  was  laid  out  on  a  large  scale,  and 
attracted  more  attention  than  any  other  experi- 
ment in  America,  except  perhaps  that  of  Brook 
Farm.  In  and  about  New  Harmony  to  this  day 
may  be  seen  many  harmless  traces  of  a  splendid 
and  iridescent  social  dream.  Many  smaller  so- 
cieties of  the  Owen  type  were  organized — such 
as  those  of  Blue  Springs,  and  Forrestville,  and 
Macluria,  in  Indiana;  and  such  as  Franklyn,  and 
Haverstraw,  in  New  York ;  and  Kendall  and  Yel- 


Some  Industrial  Problems  105 

low  Springs,  in  Ohio.  The  Fourier  type  of  soci- 
ties  largely  outnumbered  the  Owen  type.  Of 
these,  there  were  three  in  Massachusetts,  six  in 
Pennsylvania,  two  in  New  Jersey,  six  in  New 
York,  eight  in  Ohio,  three  in  Illinois,  two  in 
Michigan,  and  three  in  Wisconsin,  with  two  other 
States  represented  by  one  or  more  societies. 
These  contained  at  one  time  as  many  as  ten  thou- 
sand members.  They  owned  many  thousand 
acres  of  land.  In  the  flush  of  their  beginning, 
they  had  great  prosperity.  It  looked  as  if  the  key 
to  human  happiness  had  been  found,  and  the 
door  to  the  palace  about  to  be  opened.  But  the 
consequences  of  all  of  it  are  without  dignity. 
The  American  mind  has  almost  forgotten  the 
movement;  but,  without  question,  this  teaching 
and  experiment  has  left  its  influence  as  a  deposit 
on  the  social  thinking  of  Americans.  These  first 
social  experiments  had  the  merit  of  being  ami- 
able. There  was  no  negative  movement  to  over- 
throw society,  but  an  attempted  recreation  in  its 
midst.  All  change  was  to  be  accomplished 
through  peaceable  methods.  An  appeal  was 
made  to  reason  and  test,  and  that  appeal  failed. 


io6  Christ  in  the  Industries 

All  movements  of  that  kind  in  a  free  country  are 
legitimate,  and  among  an  intelligent  self-govern- 
ing people  can  not  be  regarded  as  dangerous. 
They  are  furthermore  very  instructive.  They 
show  how  not  to  do  it.  They  demonstrate  the 
fact  that  constructed  social  schemes  will  no  more 
work  than  machines  of  perpetual  motion.  The 
fundamental  forces  in  human  society  are  bio- 
logical. We  shall  move  into  whatever  is  good 
in  the  social  spirit  by  steps  of  conservative  pro- 
gression. 

This  interest  which  the  world  is  now  taking 
in  its  associative  life  is  not  a  sign  of  backward 
movement.  An  age  which  has  in  it  no  possibili- 
ties of  making  the  masses  of  the  people  comfort- 
able, will  not  likely  produce  socialistic  theories. 
India  and  China  and  Africa  have  no  social  ques- 
tions. These  phenomena  with  which  we  are  deal- 
ing are  only  found  among  the  most  advanced 
and  progressive  peoples.  A  non-progressive 
people  is  never  moved  and  kindled  to  the  milder 
feelings  of  philanthropy,  which  lead  the  common 
mind  patiently  to  inquire  for  the  best  social  and 
industrial  things  for  all.  Any  theory  of  associ- 


Some  Industrial  Problems  107 

ative  living  has  right  of  way  in  these  times  to 
propagate  itself  under  the  rules  of  government 
which  now  exist,  and  by  peaceable  propagand- 
ism  to  make  headway  if  it  is  able  to  do  so.  Under 
this  common  right  the  socialistic  spirit  to-day 
has  so  advanced  as  to  claim  the  serious  atten- 
tion and  study  of  all  thinkers;  and  whoever  will 
interpret  the  times  must  not  leave  it  out.  In  the 
manifest  drift  of  the  modern  world  toward  the 
expansion  of  the  powers  of  government  on  one 
hand,  and  the  alleviation  of  the  distress  of  the 
submerged  classes  on  the  other,  socialism  has 
had  its  place,  and  with  it  we  must  reckon.  It 
has  sent  many  vagaries  into  the  world's  thought. 
Some  of  its  industrial  schemes  are  never  to  be 
realized.  As  the  order  of  society  receives  its 
vast  improvements,  as  its  evolutions  bring  about 
changes  for  the  betterment  of  universal  man, 
these  changes  may  not  be  in  the  direction  of 
socialism  in  itself  considered;  but  they  will  be 
under  the  control  of  that  particular  temper  of 
the  modern  world  which  has  occasioned  all  this 
socialistic  awakening. 

Radical  socialism  as  a  particular  scheme,  how- 


io8  Christ  in  the  Industries 

ever,  will  not  likely  have  large  success  in  the 
future,  for  the  following  reasons: 

(1)  The  human  heart  is  too  selfish  yet  for 
close  organization. 

(2)  Socialism  shows  special  weakness  in  the 
face  of  intemperance,  idleness,  and  dishonesty. 

(3)  Socialism  is  given  to  advancing  theories 
under  an  enormous  miscalculation  of  human  ca- 
pabilities. 

(4)  Any  prevised  social  theory  is  impractical, 
to  the  degree  that  it  repudiates  experience  as  a 
guide. 

(5)  A  fine  condition  of  things  may  be  planned, 
if  man  will  only  lay  down  his  selfishness.     As  a 
matter  of  fact,  disinterestedness  is  only  an  occa- 
sional virtue.    Socialism  does  not  provide  for  this 
contingency. 

(6)  Socialism  implies  contradictory  traits  in 
human  nature.    The  spirit  of  each  one  must  be 
so  unselfish  as  to  make  continuous  sacrifice  for 
others,  and  also  so  unworthy  as  to  let  others 
sacrifice  for  it. 


Some  Industrial  Problems  109 

3.  Christian  Socialism 

In  the  early  history  of  the  Church  we  have  an 
example  of  socialism,  given  without  unfavorable 
comment.  They  had  all  things  in  common,  and 
"to  each  was  distributed  as  he  had  need."  Joses 
sold  his  land,  and  brought  the  money  and  laid  it 
at  the  apostles'  feet.  Ananias  and  Sapphira  sold 
their  possessions,  and  brought  a  part,  with  the 
result  known.  This  record  has  often  been  given 
as  authority  for  bringing  the  world  to  this  stand- 
ard of  living.  It  has  been  the  occasion,  at  least, 
of  many  experiments  among  believers.  The 
monasteries  and  nunneries  are  types  of  these 
efforts.  The  Rappites  and  Zoarites  and  Shakers 
shape  their  affairs  by  this  pattern. 

If  the  following  distinctions  are  kept  in  mind, 
we  shall  have  no  difficulty  with  this  Biblical  case 
in  the  face  of  general  experience. 

(i)  This  community  of  goods  among  the  early 
Christians  was  a  voluntary  arrangement,  and  was 
not  set  forth  by  them  as  a  part  of  the  Christian 
doctrine.  Their  manner  of  living  has  no  positive 
indorsement  from  the  Word. 


no  Christ  in  the  Industries 

(2)  The  punishment  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira 
was  not  for  failure  to  submit  to  the  terms  of  the 
community  covenant,  for  they  were  free  not  to 
do  so;  but  for  lying. 

(3)  This  community  was  constituted  for  a  re- 
ligious purpose  and  end,  and  not  a  social.    The 
early    Christians    were    persecuted,    and    they 
banded  together  for  mutual  protection. 

(4)  It  was  a  temporary  expedient,  and  was 
never  offered  as  the  pattern  of  human  society. 

(5)  It  is  not  referred  to  elsewhere,  and  the 
other  Churches  did  not  take  it  up. 

(6)  It  was  short-lived,  and  probably  was  not 
satisfactory  to  those  who  had  embraced  it.     As 
a  type  of  social  living,  it  was  too  close  for  even 
those  who  were  bound  by  the  divine  fellowship 
in  Christ. 

(7)  The  Bible  recognizes  and  indorses  private 
property. 

Christian  socialism,  as  it  is  understood  to-day, 
does  not,  in  many  of  its  forms,  proclaim  the  abo- 
lition of  private  property.  It  claims  that  the  in- 
dustrial ills  of  society  exist  because  there  is  a 
lack  of  Christianity  in  the  social  order.  The 


Some  Industrial  Problems  in 

solution  of  all  questions,  they  say,  lies  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
Christ  was  the  great  socialist.  Christ  healed 
men's  souls;  but  he  healed  their  bodies  as  well, 
and  fed  them.  Business  must  be  founded  on  the 
social  law  of  the  gospel,  which  involves  the  prin- 
ciple of  combination  rather  than  competition. 
Christianity  demands  a  system  of  business  car- 
ried on  for  the  public  good,  rather  than  private 
profit.  This  is  the  position  of  Christian  social- 
ism. In  its  main  features  it  advocates  no  im- 
moderate or  radical  measures.  It  proposes  to 
have  experience  and  science  test  the  unfolding 
methods  by  which  man  shall  be  brought  to  the 
true  Biblical  brotherhood. 

The  manifesto  issued  by  the  Christian  Social- 
ist Society  of  London  is  as  follows: 

(1)  Christian    socialism    aims   at    embodying 
the  principles  contained  in  the  life  and  teachings 
of  Christ  in  the  industrial  organization  of  society. 

(2)  The   Christian   Socialist  Society  believes 
that,  by  the  changes  it  advocates  in  the  industrial 
system,  men  will  be  enabled,  under  the  altered 
conditions  of  modern  life,  to  put  into  practice 


ii2  Christ  in  the  Industries 

the  principles  taught  by  Christians  in  all  their 
dealings  with  one  another  as  fellow-men  and  as 
fellow-citizens. 

(3)  The  Society  is  independent  of  special  theo- 
logical views,  and  welcomes  as  members  those 
who  desire  to  subordinate  their  private  advan- 
tage to  the  good  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  of 
mankind,  and  to  strive  for  the  knowledge  and 
power  of  doing  it  in  the  best  and  highest  manner 
possible. 

To  organize  under  such  a  manifesto  is  great 
and  broad,  but  vague.  It  takes  in  all  the  general 
principles  of  Christian  teaching,  for  which  the 
mass  of  believers  are  laboring.  It  is  a  compre- 
hensive program,  but  exceedingly  indefinite.  It 
is  a  committee  on  resolutions,  which  ought  to 
be  consolidated  with  the  committee  on  ways  and 
means. 

As  an  illustration  of  social  impracticability, 
here  are  the  propositions  of  another  society  : 

(1)  Keep  capitalists  and  saloon-keepers  from 
ruining  politics. 

(2)  Look  out  for  the  caucus. 

(3)  More  socialistic  legislation. 


Some  Industrial  Problems  113 

(4)  The  Australian  ballot  system. 

(5)  A  free  ballot. 

(6)  Relief  works  for  the  unemployed. 

(7)  Dwellings  erected  and  sold  to  workmen 
for  the  cost  of  production. 

(8)  If  a  man  has  no  trade,  teach  him  one. 

(9)  Concentrate  taxation  more  and  more  on 
land. 

(10)  Declare  all  mines  public  property, 
(n)  An  eight-hour  day. 

(12)  A  half-holiday  on  Saturday. 

(13)  A  Sunday  of  rest  for  all. 

(14)  Enfranchisement  of  women. 

(15)  Removal  of  the  poll-tax. 

(16)  Free  technical  education. 

(17)  A  public  midday  meal  for  each  scholar. 

(18)  Government  control  of  telegraphs,  rail- 
roads, light  and  coal  and  gas  companies. 

(19)  The  gradual  nationalization  of  all  great 
enterprises  in  which  the  public  are  interested. 

(20)  Radically  reform  the  civil  service. 
There  are  some  splendid  things  here.     It  is 

a  bill  of  fare,  out  of  which  each  appetite  can  get 
something  it  likes.     But  who  would  want  to 


ii4  Christ  in  the  Industries 

swallow  the  whole  bill  of  fare?  The  very  cata- 
logue itself  constitutes  it  a  list  of  childish  wishes. 
Some  of  these  things  are  already  realized;  some 
others  ought  to  be,  or  are  in  process  of  being 
realized;  and  others,  under  human  nature,  are 
chimerical.  An  organization  having  that  list  for 
its  base  may  have  many  good  purposes;  but  it  has 
no  practical  sagacity.  A  good  purpose  may  be 
animated  by  an  exalted  spirit,  and  yet  be  defeated 
by  mental  confusion. 

4.  Bationaltem 

Nationalism,  as  one  of  the  newer  industrial 
schemes,  claims  a  communistic  base  with  a  phil- 
anthropic purpose.  It  aims  at  an  entire  control 
of  production  by  the  nation.  It  is  a  complete 
paternity  in  government,  in  which  the  nation 
undertakes  to  clothe  the  backs  and  fill  the  stom- 
achs of  all  the  people,  and  to  welcome  all  comers. 
As  an  intellectual  ferment,  it  is  a  success.  For 
the  impracticability  of  its  methods,  it  is  not  ex- 
celled by  any  scheme  in  print.  It  has  secured 
converts  largely  among  people  of  literary  tastes, 
having  a  philanthropic  turn  of  mind  with  defect 


Some  Industrial  P rob  Ions  115 

of  logical  faculty.  We  must  have  respect  for 
some  of  its  purposes,  as  we  have  regard  for  the 
principles  on  which  ideals  are  built;  and  they 
have  the  full  force  of  an  ideal  for  the  mind.  Vir- 
tue, peace,  plenty  for  all,  contentment,  happiness, 
absence  from  carking  care, — these  are  the  con- 
ditions for  which  matter-of-fact  people  have  been 
toiling  for  centuries;  and  they  have  been  toiling 
with  every  motive  about  them  for  the  use  of  the 
best  possible  methods.  Many  of  these  toilers 
have  had  experience  enough  with  the  obstinacy 
of  the  human  heart  to  know  that  it  will  not  yield 
to  these  superficial  schemes.  People  who  are  not 
equal  to  the  constancy  of  daily  effort  in  small 
ways  for  the  betterment  of  the  world ;  people  who 
are  slack  in  daily  works  of  grace  and  charity; 
people  who  think  that  child-training  is  a  little 
business,  and  preaching  and  Sunday-school  work 
too  slow,  are  seldom  equal  to  the  projection  of 
schemes  of  any  practical  moment  to  the  world. 
The  defects  of  government  which  nationalism 
has  overcome  are  yet  on  paper.  It  has  not  yet 
shown  what  it  can  do.  Its  theories  and  plans 
are  pictures  of  a  despotism  which  every  Ameri- 


n6  Christ  in  the  Industries 

can  has  dreaded  since  the  conflict  for  independ- 
ence. To  accept  these  would  be  a  leap  in  the 
dark  with  all  the  economic  principles  which  have 
proved  reliable  for  a  thousand  years.  It  will  be 
safe  to  predict  that  the  old  order  standeth.  There 
will  be  no  sudden  transformations  or  upheavals. 
The  things  man  has  learned  of  liberty  and  prog- 
ress are  to  remain.  They  will  not  be  exchanged 
for  the  newest  thing  out.  These  things  we  see 
of  law  and  order,  these  things  we  understand 
about  what  civil  society  is  for,  its  limits  and  its 
possibilities,  with  the  individual  and  his  rights, 
are  not  to  be  overthrown.  They  have  come  to 
us  one  by  one,  and  have  had  application  little  by 
little,  and  they  will  stand  all  the  attacks  of  swift 
visionaries,  as  Gibraltar  stands  the  lashing  of  the 
waves.  These  social  forms  which  now  prevail  are 
the  expressions  in  a  collective  way  of  what  man 
is  in  his  inmost  nature.  For  these  forms  to 
change  suddenly,  is  for  human  nature  to  change 
suddenly. 

Human  nature  might  take  a  tumble,  and  come 
out  a  new  thing  in  a  night,  and  fit  itself  to  the 


Some  Industrial  Problems  117 

creations  of  the  social  dreamer;  but  what  has 
not  been,  is  not  likely  to  be. 

The  people  of  this  country  have  but  little  need 
of  these  social  doctors  who  have  never  tested 
their  nostrums  anywhere.  These  offerers  and 
advocates  of  strange  and  revolutionary  schemes 
never  see  them  adopted.  They  make  a  show; 
they  promise  the  millennium;  they  disturb  the 
minds  of  a  few;  they  make  fanatical  advocates 
out  of  a  few  more;  they  flash  in  and  flash  out  like 
comets  in  the  solar  system,  and  we  do  not  see 
their  uses  unless  it  be  incidentally  to  show  the 
greatness  and  superiority  of  the  regular  system. 

Out  of  the  evils  of  this  time  there  may  not  be 
any  swift  upcome;  but  we  are  nearly  sure  to  have 
a  conservative  progression. 

Among  a  free  people  who  are  self-governing, 
there  must  be  constant  vigilance;  there  must  be 
the  careful  molding  of  thought  and  opinion ;  there 
must  be  increasing  reform  of  abuses;  there  must 
be  the  sternest  contention  for  civil  righteousness, 
but  no  overturn  of  these  tried  and  great  primal 
elements  of  government,  on  which  the  world  now 


n8  Christ  in  the  Industries 

so  securely  rests.  We  shall  certainly  be  able  to 
cure  some  ailments,  without  taking  off  the  pa- 
tient's head.  We  need  only  such  changes  as  will 
gradually  come  about  to  meet  new  conditions, 
and  only  such  changes  as  are  able  to  stand  the 
test  of  time  and  experiment,  and  such  as  are 
modest  enough  to  consent  to  some  smaller  appli- 
cations first,  and  then  by  degrees  make  their  ap- 
peals to  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  and,  if 
they  are  equal  to  it,  to  reach  out  and  accomplish 
the  fullest  needs  of  the  world. 

Now,  let  us  clearly  apprehend  another  matter 
here.  Social  laws  are  laws  of  life,  and  laws  of  life 
are  not  to  be  put  under  duress.  When  we  talk 
of  the  community,  we  talk  of  an  organism  with 
the  most  delicate  and  complicated  functions. 
This  must  be  understood  by  all  who  would  help 
it  in  any  way.  The  invention  of  a  social  system 
on  paper  is  the  purest  nonsense.  As  well  try  to 
invent  a  tree,  by  taking  a  stick  and  nailing  on 
limbs.  A  tree  may  be  changed  and  reshaped  for 
the  better,  but  only  according  to  the  law  of  its 
own  life.  Society  may  be  controlled  and  quick- 
ened by  working  in  harmony  with  its  own  laws, 


Some  Industrial  Problems 


119 


and  in  no  other  way.  It  is  a  matter  of  common 
observation  that  social  betterments  do  not  come 
about  in  ways  ordinarily  expected.  So  deep  and 
occult  are  the  causes  of  all  real  social  change, 
that  the  common  mind  nearly  always  grasps  and 
gives  credit  to  some  passing  or  final  phase  of  the 
uplift.  It  sees  only  the  outwardly  phenomenal, 
and  makes  its  estimates  from  surface  appear- 
ances. 

Human  society  is  the  institutional  expression 
of  man's  associative  activities.  It  is  dynamic. 
It  is  never  fixed  and  stable.  It  had  its  begin- 
nings in  ignorance  and  barbarism.  It  started 
with  the  dawn  of  intelligence,  and  it  has  no  end- 
ing. It  is  on  its  way,  not  to  its  own  destiny  and 
finish,  but  to  man's  destiny.  It  voices  at  any 
specified  time  substantially  the  state  of  self-con- 
trol to  which  man  has  arrived. 

5.  agriculture 

It  is  an  accepted  economic  principle  that  the 
products  of  the  soil  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the 
world's  prosperity.  This  is  so,  because  of  the 
clear  but  profound  fact  that  man  can  not  live  on 


I2O  Christ  in  the  Industries 

the  inorganic  elements.  His  food  must  be  trans- 
muted into  life  before  he  can  digest  it.  Chemistry 
is  at  work,  at  odd  times,  on  the  effort  to  change 
the  bulk  material  of  the  earth  directly  into  a 
digestible  product,  but  without  success.  Man's 
food  is  organic.  The  soil  is  man's  base  of  supply 
for  food.  Everything  of  wearing  apparel  also, 
with  all  manufactured  products  reaches  the  soil 
with  only  a  step  or  two  backward.  We  must  not 
forget  that  the  soil  is  the  mother  of  us  all,  and 
also  the  bosom  of  our  final  rest.  Agricultural 
prosperity  means  general  prosperity,  and  its  de- 
pression means  a  break  in  the  industries  finally. 
It  is  the  soil  against  the  world.  The  self-reliant 
nation  is  the  one  with  a  food  product.  The  man 
also  who  has  resources  for  feeding  himself  is 
most  self-reliant. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  it  was  supposed  that  our 
country  had  an  exhaustless  landed  area.  Atten- 
tion to  the  growth  of  our  cities  and  manufactur- 
ing interests  appeared  to  be  the  wise  policy.  We 
have  suddenly  awakened  to  the  fact  that  the 
available  land  for  agriculture  has  all  been  taken 
and  nearly  all  put  into  use,  and  that  at  the  present 


Some  Industrial  Problems  121 

rate  of  increase  of  urban  and  rural  population, 
it  will  not  be  long  till  half  the  population  of  the 
country  will  be  in  the  cities  and  towns.     Just 
ahead,  evidently,  there  will  be  an  excess  of  artisan 
labor,   unless   foreign   trade   should   give   relief. 
With  the  increased  power  which  machinery  has 
given  to  production,  there  will  go  into  the  mar- 
kets  an   overproportion   of   manufactured    pro- 
ducts, to  bring  congestions  and  shut-downs  to  the 
despair  of  large  numbers.     Yet  the  movement 
from  country  life  to  city  life  has  not  abated.    Our 
people  think  city  life  a  higher  life.    They  think 
it  easier.     They  believe  its  severities  to  be  less. 
New  England  has  thousands  of  vacated  farms. 
Excess  of  laborers  in  the  city,  and  the  country 
regions  needing  that  labor  to  develop  and  im- 
prove and  make  the  lands  productive — that  is 
the  situation.    There  could  not  be  such  a  con- 
dition as  excess  of  labor  on  the  farm.     There 
could  be  an  amount  of  labor  which  is  not  profit- 
able under  present  conditions,  which  is  partly  the 
fault  of  agricultural  methods,  and  the  ideas  we 
have  of  living.     If  enough  labor  can  be  gotten 
on  the  soil,  it  will  produce  food  for  all,  abundant 


122  Christ  in  the  Industries 

and  cheap.  One  acre  of  fertile  land,  with  a  few 
days  of  work,  will  produce  food  for  a  family  for 
months.  A  wage-earner  will  give  for  the  same 
amount  of  food  several  times  as  much  work. 
Would  it  not  be  better,  therefore,  for  larger  num- 
bers of  workmen  to  invest  their  labor  in  the  soil 
rather  than  in  wages?  We  have  in  view  here  the 
question  of  bread.  The  country  offers  a  chance 
to  stop  all  hunger.  The  city  is  not  self-contained 
in  that  sense.  It  is  better  for  a  well-fed  man  to 
have  plain  surroundings  and  common  clothes 
than  for  a  hungry  man  to  have  spotless  garments 
and  live  in  style.  It  is  so,  as  a  fact,  that  the  coun- 
try affords  room  for  few  laborers  at  profitable 
rates  for  those  who  employ,  but  room  could  be 
made  for  an  indefinite  number. 

But  whether  this  be  true  or  not,  if  the  energy 
and  force  of  the  country  for  another  generation 
comes  to  town  to  compete  with  an  already  full 
quota  of  labor,  what  is  to  be  the  result?  It  will 
not  be  necessary  to  make  a  plea  for  the  isolation 
of  country  life.  There  are  always  those  whose 
tastes  hold  them  to  what  others  would  think  the 
solitude  of  the  farm,  and  these  will  be  insufficient 


Some  Industrial  Problems  123 

numbers  to  hold  outlying  regions.  We  speak 
of  agricultural  pursuits  only.  The  custom  of 
Europe  for  generations  with  the  agricultural 
class  is  urban  residence.  They  find  home,  and 
society,  and  the  Church  in  town,  and  bread  in  the 
country.  The  first  economic  question  is  bread. 
The  soil  supplies  that.  Soil  cultivation  within 
itself  will  not  supply  man  with  the  full  necessities 
of  a  civilized  life,  but  it  answers  the  question, 
Where  shall  the  people  get  bread? 

The  rush  of  our  people  into  mechanical  and 
commercial  and  professional  pursuits  has  hin- 
dered the  division  of  soil  ownership  into  smaller 
tracts,  which  would  have  been  better  for  both  the 
tiller  and  the  care  of  the  soil,  much  of  which  is 
being  neglected.  Its  fertility  is  slipping  down 
the  valleys  to  be  carried  away.  These  skinned 
hills  represent  venality.  It  is  a  wanton  waste  of 
the  best  God  has  given  us. 

6.  Cbe  l?tn&  of  "GOorft  to  be  Bone  at  tbe  JSottom 

Industrial  schemes  break  down  when  they 
come  to  the  edge  of  the  slums.  These  are  not  fit 
for  the  industries.  They  are  so  sodden  and  dead 


124  Christ  in  the  Industries 

to  the  advantages  of  economic  concerns  that 
they  can  not  be  induced  to  take  their  place  in 
them.  They  are  like  insensible  victims  in  a  poi- 
soned miasm;  you  shout  to  them,  but  they  can 
not  hear  you.  Put  them  all  in  palaces,  and  they 
would  turn  these  palaces  into  dens,  or  run  away 
and  leave  them.  In  increasing  numbers  they  are 
going  lower.  They  live  in  the  shadows  of  spires 
and  granite  blocks.  From  the  people  across  the 
streets  they  are  separated  by  a  thousand  years 
of  progress.  Individual  units  of  this  dark  Tarta- 
rus go  out  to  the  establishments  in  the  morning, 
and  return  at  night.  They  are  in  a  treadmill 
without  any  stipulations  for  getting  off.  They 
are  in  the  gradgrind,  and  they  are  without  power 
of  self-deliverance.  Human  nature  unaided  has 
never  been  equal  to  such  a  state.  These  people 
must  have  help — that  is  certain.  But  of  what 
kind?  There  must  be  law.  There  must  be  mu- 
nicipal and  State  provision  for  the  most  com- 
pletely depressed.  There  must  be  strict  police 
surveillance.  There  may  be  needed  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  powers  of  government  over  certain 
agencies  which  the  law  does  not  now  recognize; 


Some  Industrial  Problems  125 

such  as  some  new  features  in  education  and  sani- 
tation; such  as  the  isolation  of  moral  lunatics, 
and  the  prevention  of  marriage  where  heredity 
has  fastened  a  taint  that  would  be  perpetuated 
by  marriage;  but  the  only  hope  of  this  class  is 
moral  elevation.  The  alternative  of  this  is  despair. 
And  despair  is  un-American. 

The  common  principles  and  plans  for  the 
moral  regeneration  of  men  are  now  generally 
well  understood.  Time  and  again  they  have  been 
tested.  They  have  lifted  the  lowest  peoples  into 
better  states.  Christian  ethics  is  of  universal  ap- 
plication. Its  methods  are  not  experiments.  It 
only  needs  executors  and  representatives  of  its 
power.  It  has  never  failed  where  fairly  pro- 
claimed. The  only  efficient  moral  life  to-day  is 
that  which  is  intensified  with  the  Christ-spirit. 
It  takes  the  Christ  passion  to  make  morals  strong 
enough  for  the  slums.  Morals  must  be  raised  to 
a  power  to  reach  the  lowest  strata  of  society. 
There  must  not  be  a  spot  on  earth  too  black  for 
gospel  morals.  If  it  ever  comes  to  pass  that  the 
gospel  only  saves  moderate  sinners,  it  will  then 
come  to  pass  that  it  saves  none.  It  will  then  ap- 


126  Christ  in  the  Industries 

pear  that  the  world  is  a  plague  spot.  Superficial 
religious  sentiment  is  not  strong  enough  for  this 
business.  It  has  come  to  pass  the  greatest  work 
of  God  on  earth  is  the  most  unwholesome. 
Moral  evil  lies  at  the  root  of  all  this  misery. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  that 
the  center  of  all  successful  plans  for  the  better- 
ment of  human  conditions  is  at  the  human  heart. 
This  slum  life  has  a  heart.  The  awakening  of  the 
divine  passion  in  it — that  is  great,  that  is  possible. 
To  get  the  gospel  set  into  the  slums — what  a  long, 
slow  work!  What  myriads  of  devoted  toilers 
must  come  and  go  before  it  is  accomplished! 
The  reconstruction  of  society  does  not  come 
about  by  spurts  and  starts.  Sudden  social  over- 
turnings  are  very  few.  Industrial  peace  as  to  its 
present  forms  of  conflict  will  not  come  by  cata- 
clysms, or  revolutions,  or  sudden  upheavals  of 
this  or  that  established  order,  but  by  the  slow 
dying  away  of  the  effete,  and  the  infusion  of  new 
life  by  the  normal  process  of  blood  digestion  and 
blood  assimilation.  It  is  the  unseen  which  takes 
hold  most  naturally  and  healthfully.  Healthy 
organisms  grow  unconsciously.  Gospel  forces 


Some  Industrial  Problems  127 

build  society  in  the  same  way.  Whoever  has  a 
craving  for  the  spectacular,  will  miss  the  meaning 
of  these  slower  movements.  We  shall  not  be 
startled  with  the  surprise  of  a  new  day,  but  we 
may  see  the  dawning  of  an  industrial  morning. 
Its  first  signs  will  be  the  fainter  gleam  of  the 
stars  of  the  social  night ;  then  the  streaks  of  gray  | 
and  emerald  and  gold;  then  the  dew  laden  with 
the  breath  of  flowers ;  then  the  full  orb  of  the  sun 
of  day. 

Many  have  lost  heart  because  of  the  slowness 
of  its  coming.  So  are  they  impatient  of  daily 
plodding  and  patience  and  duty.  If  the  mass  of 
men  get  weary  of  living  as  Christ  lived — get 
weary  of  standing  for  the  truth,  and  begin  to 
make  experiment  for  an  easier  way — their  insti- 
tutions will  begin  to  decay;  for  all  things  are  in 
peril  when  religion  loses  its  hold. 

Three  measures  of  meal  is  all  there  is  to  be 
leavened.  If  we  muster  faith  to  insert  the  leaven, 
and  energy  to  properly  knead  and  tend  it,  it  will 
work  its  own  way.  We  do  not  bring  the  millen- 
nium at  a  stroke ;  we  decree  the  conditions. 

Men  still  refuse  to  believe  that  the  earth  may 


128  Christ  in  the  Industries 

be  moved  with  a  sense  of  the  Divine.  They  have 
no  faith  in  the  Golden  Rule  as  a  stay  of  society, 
and  they  suspect  that  it  will  be  abolished  for  a 
new  way  as  soon  as  men  begin  to  disobey  it.  As 
well  undertake  to  abolish  the  mountains  or  the 
sunshine.  Now  the  gospel  does  not  coerce  or 
suborn  the  spirit  of  man.  It  does  not  harness  or 
break  his  will.  It  has  no  lash  of  scorpion  whip. 
It  offers  motives.  It  has  invitations.  It  promises 
forgiveness  of  sin.  It  bestows  peace  in  the  Di- 
vine Spirit,  and  by  all  the  persuasiveness  of  its 
marvelous  interworking  in  history  and  life,  it 
gives  strength  to  the  civil  law,  order  to  society, 
and  prosperity  to  the  affairs  of  men. 

7.  CbrlgtfanttB  SpplteD 

Christianity  applied  is  Christianity  set  into 
the  institutions  of  men.  It  is  the  gospel  taking 
hold.  We  have  come  to  an  age  when  we  see  the 
collective  results  of  the  system.  The  prophecy 
is  being  fulfilled,  that  a  nation  shall  be  born  to 
God  in  a  day.  Direct  gospel  forces  have  been 
transformed  into  currents  in  history.  The  gospel 
first  touches  individuals  to  convert  them,  and 


Some  Industrial  Problems  129 

then  sends  its  secondary  and  collective  influences 
down  beneath  the  surface,  to  work  away  out  of 
sight,  in  some  instances  for  generations,  and 
finally  to  appear  again,  having  gained  momen- 
tum and  breadth  through  the  omnipotence  of  a 
long  social  incubation,  when  it  begins  to  move 
in  concentrics  and  sway  the  life  of  man  by 
massed  opinion,  and  by  accepted  sentiment,  and 
by  the  unwritten  and  unconscious  laws  of  control 
which  heredity  has  made  irresistible. 

It  was  the  settled  policy  of  the  Roman  Govern- 
ment with  conquered  peoples  that  they  should  be 
governed  by  their  own  laws,  so  far  as  that  could 
be  done  and  hold  them  to  the  central  empire. 
In  the  day  of  her  greatest  conquests  she  did  not 
care  to  enter  into  the  smaller  features  of  the  in- 
ternal life  of  conquered  nations.  She  adjusted 
herself  to  all  local  conditions  which  she  knew 
she  could  not  change  immediately  by  any  sort  of 
coercive  power.  Roman  legislators  were  there- 
fore obliged  to  study  the  laws  of  conquered  terri- 
tories, in  order  to  fit  the  general  Roman  policy 
into  the  peculiar  ideas  which  these  subject  regions 
might  have  of  government.  This  broad  policy 
9 


130  Christ  in  the  Industries 

had  a  remarkable  reflex  advantage  on  the  Roman 
system  of  civil  justice.  It  gave  opportunity  for 
incorporation  into  the  civil  code  whatever  might 
appear  to  be  just;  and  these  ideas  of  justice  were 
practically  a  consensus  of  the  ideas  of  all  con- 
quered peoples.  So  far  as  Roman  jurisprudence 
is  concerned,  it  is  distinctly  Roman;  but  it  is  not 
provincial.  As  a  system  of  law,  it  has  in  it  the 
principles  of  universality,  because  it  has  been 
gathered  from  the  legal  practices  of  widely  di- 
vergent populations.  Roman  law,  therefore,  is 
cosmopolitan.  It  has  in  it  abundant  material 
which  may  be  used  by  the  broadest-minded  legal 
lights  of  any  day.  The  Roman  law,  therefore, 
did  not  spring  up  de  novo.  It  was  the  slow  de- 
posit of  centuries.  It  came  from  many  different 
codes,  from  many  directions,  from  many  schools 
of  thought,  from  many  faiths  in  religion.  The 
one  supremacy  was  the  Roman  spirit.  That  was 
dominant  and  all  masterful.  To  that  sort  of  su- 
premacy we  believe  the  Christian  religion  is  com- 
ing to-day;  for  it  is  making  use  of  all  human 
sentiments  and  all  human  conditions  to  accom- 
plish its  Divine  ends. 


Some  Industrial  Problems  131 

A  modern  likeness  in  some  respects  to  the 
Roman  policy  is  the  English  colonial  system. 
English  India  to-day  has  a  population  double  that 
of  the  Roman  Empire  at  its  most  populous  pe- 
riod. More  than  three  hundred  millions  of  people 
now  inhabit  India.  Leaving  out  the  dialects,  there 
are  more  than  three  hundred  different  languages. 
There  are  diverse  social  customs  and  human 
beings  in  all  stages  of  development,  from  the 
lowest  savage  to  the  Indian  gentleman  of  refine- 
ment and  of  high  philosophic  attainment.  What 
a  complicated  and  pliant  political  organization 
to  deal  successfully  with  these  discordant  masses! 
We  have  no  explanation  of  the  power  that  does  it, 
except  that  it  is  the  English  spirit.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  necessities  of  this  world-wide  rule 
strengthen  the  Englishman's  capacity  for  diverse 
administrative  interests.  The  Englishman  is  not 
a  provincial.  His  spirit  and  capacity  to  control 
is  manifest  among  all  nations. 

These  are  parallels  to  the  kind  of  influence  the 
gospel  of  Christ  has  had  on  the  world.  It  takes 
its  place  in  history.  It  shows  itself  strong  enough 
to  sway  the  strongest  nations  and  races.  Its  ef- 


132  Christ  in  the  Industries 

fects  are  everywhere  now  to  sway  the  institutions 
of  civilized  man. 

(a)  Universality  of  the  Christ  Idea 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  time  is  the  uni- 
versality of  the  Christ  spirit.  Christ  is  all  in  all 
in  the  popular  mind.  Among  those  who  make 
no  pretension  to  obey  him,  he  is  the  King  of  their 
thought,  because  he  is  the  mental  standard  of 
their  living,  when  they  choose  to  have  use  for  it. 
Christ  is  exalted  to-day,  and  has  a  name  that  is 
above  every  human  name.  The  battle  of  apology 
for  Jesus  Christ  is  over.  Human  selfishness  and 
passion  and  hate  may  refuse  to  serve  him,  but 
the  universal  judgment  now  receives  Jesus  as  the 
great  Teacher,  the  model  man,  the  supreme  rep- 
resentative of  his  race.  The  world  at  last  has 
an  accepted  ideal  in  Jesus  Christ. 

(b)  The  Ethical  Basis  of  Modern  Life 

Civilization  now  has  a  distinct  ethical  basis. 
This  is  its  distinguishing  feature.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  glorify  the  spirit  of  progress.  We  are 
aware  of  the  achievements  of  the  human  mind. 
Intellectual  culture  is  at  the  summit  of  all  his- 


Some  Industrial  Problems  133 

tory.  Invention  and  discovery  are  having  their 
greatest  influence.  This  rich  territory  of  a  New 
World  is  putting  intense  energy  into  man,  and 
the  hidden  resources  of  earth  and  sky,  on  the 
edge  of  being  revealed,  make  him  expectant  and 
hopeful.  Reason  is  being  enthroned,  but  it  is 
a  very  practical  reason.  It  is  being  held  by  the 
laws  of  moral  conduct.  The  moral  life  of  man 
has  risen  to  attention.  Moral  law  is  at  the  bot- 
tom of  things.  The  good  desert  of  virtue  and 
the  ill  desert  of  vice,  according  to  modern  think- 
ing, are  the  basal  distinctions  in  the  beginning 
of  government.  The  world  now  looks  out  from 
this  new  standpoint,  and  it  is  creating  a  new 
habit  of  thought.  This  conception  of  the  basis  of 
action  is  Christian.  It  is  the  Christ-born  idea. 
Gibbon  says:  "The  desire  of  perfection  became 
the  ruling  passion  of  the  lives  of  Christians.  It 
was  their  austere  morality  that  attracted  atten- 
tion. Christianity  offered  to  show  pagan  men 
made  over."  Guizot  calls  this  turning  of  the 
basis  of  action  to  the  moral  life  "the  crisis  of 
civilization."  This  is  the  Christ  idea  of  man  and 
of  his  motives  to  action.  The  moral  code  of  the 


134  Christ  in  the  Industries 

Bible  has  gained  the  assent  of  men,  and  it  must 
be  put  down  as  an  applied  achievement  of  the 
Christian  system. 

(c)  Bible  Principles  in  the  Civil  Law 

Some  time  ago  we  had  occasion  to  examine 
the  likenesses  between  the  civil  principles  em- 
bodied in  the  constitutions  of  the  several  States, 
and  the  same  elements  in  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. There  is  no  formal  recognition  anywhere, 
but  substantial  incorporation  everywhere.  A 
member  of  a  State  Legislature  not  long  ago  in- 
troduced a  bill  to  make  the  Ten  Commandments 
the  law  of  that  State,  with  penalties  attached  for 
violation.  That  would  be  a  piece  of  legislative 
monstrosity.  The  Ten  Commandments  in  their 
inspired  form,  and  as  the  authoritative  moral  code 
of  the  world,  ought  never  to  be  put  in  the  issue 
of  being  decided  for  or  against  by  a  show  of 
hands.  That  degrades  the  Commandments,  and 
calls  them  to  answer  to  a  standard  of  human 
opinion.  Against  any  majority  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments stand  as  the  law  of  God  to  men.  If 
I  consent  that  the  Commandments  be  obeyed  or 


Some  Industrial  Problems  135 

disobeyed  as  the  majorities  decide,  I  must  accept 
the  will  of  the  majority  if  it  goes  against  them. 
I  prefer  to  reserve  the  right  to  preach  the  Ten 
Commandments,  even  if  there  be  none  who  be- 
lieve or  obey.  The  law  of  God  to  the  Christian 
must  be  held  above  questions  of  partisan  expedi- 
ency. The  things  involved  in  the  Bible  have 
large  application  in  our  laws.  The  whole  struc- 
ture of  the  law  to-day,  with  its  ideas  of  justice 
and  personal  right,  and  of  civil  liberty,  and  with 
its  whole  penal  code,  appears  to  be  built  on  the 
Bible.  The  Bible  actually  is  the  Magna  Charta 
of  our  civil  administration.  The  Bible  was  pres- 
ent as  a  chief  factor  in  the  beginnings  of  the  Eng- 
lish code,  and  that  has  been  the  pattern  of  our 
own.  The  early  English  laws  were  shaped  by 
clergymen,  more  than  by  any  other  class.  Bible 
ideas  of  justice,  Bible  ideas  of  fairness,  Bible 
ideas  of  mutual  and  common  right,  yet  abide  in 
the  English  law  as  an  inheritance  of  the  old  year- 
books and  kingly  codes.  The  moral  rules  of 
Christianity  were  transmuted  into  civil  law  by 
these  old-time  preachers.  Established  decisions 
in  casuistrv,  now  operative  in  this  country  and  in 


136  Christ  in  the  Industries 

England,  were  first  set  forth  by  the  clergymen — 
many  of  them  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII — and 
they  constituted  the  only  salt  to  save  that  notori- 
ous reign.  Many  statutory  provisions  now  are 
below  the  Bible  standard.  Human  venality  has 
entered  in,  and  political  ambition  also.  We  strug- 
gle to-day  against  special  legislation,  because  we 
have  the  gospel  spirit,  and  we  undertake  for  the 
same  reason  to  checkmate  all  laws  that  have  by 
indirection  an  immoral  end.  All  the  principles 
of  common  equity  to-day  are  found  in  the  Bible. 
Our  laws  are  the  expressions  of  what  we  think 
to  be  right  as  between  man  and  man,  and  as  be- 
tween man  and  the  State.  An  attorney  of  expe- 
rience gave  this  advice  to  a  young  lawyer  with 
his  first  case:  "Just  look  over  your  case,  and 
then  do  what  you  think  is  right,  and  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  you  will  have  the  law  on  your  side." 
This  young  man's  idea  of  what  is  right,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  is  a  Bible  standard — so 
thoroughly  is  Bible  thought  in  the  atmosphere. 
The  moral  standards  of  the  civilized  world  are 
Bible  standards. 


Some  Industrial  Problems  137 

(d)  The  Self-governing  Mind 

In  the  old  faiths  was  the  cult  of  ceremony  and 
the  spirit  to  please  the  gods;  for  the  gods  them- 
selves were  capricious.  The  favor  of  the  gods 
gave  the  pagan  no  absolute  guarantees;  but  it 
meant  for  him  a  species  of  good  luck.  The  gods 
themselves  were  not  perfect,  and  had  attributed 
to  them  human  passions  and  ambitions.  Wor- 
ship, therefore,  had  but  little  influence  on  the 
character.  It  did  not  make  men  better.  The 
Christian's  thought  of  one  God  as  perfect  in 
power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  exalts  the  mind 
and  satisfies  the  conscience.  Out  of  that  comes 
life's  obligation  to  worship  and  obey.  When  this 
possesses  man,  the  other  obligations  take  their 
proper  place  in  his  mind.  This  is  the  highest  and 
first.  It  is  God's  law  involving  a  principle  of 
control  for  the  life,  and  straightway  there  is  a 
rising  to  say,  "I  obey  God  rather  than  man." 
How  strong  this  spirit  was  among  the  martyrs! 
It  interprets  the  triumphs  of  the  early  Christians. 
The  soul  here  meets  its  highest  duty  and  joy,  the 
whole  force  of  which  is  to  differentiate  the  per- 
sonal life,  and  stand  it  out  the  monarch  of  all 


Christ  in  the  Industries 


earthly  circumstances.  Each  separate  man  faces 
for  himself  doty,  and  is  confronted  with  a  judg- 
ment-day. That  is  a  truth  which  magnifies  itself 
in  him,  and  exalts  him.  It  gives  him  an  estimate 
of  his  own  value,  and  makes  him  feel  the  worth 
of  asserting  his  own  rights.  When  a  man  can 
say,  "I  obey  God  and  follow  his  law,"  then  he  has 
the  temper  to  make  contention  for  the  law  of  God 
among  other  men.  While  he  is  swayed  by  that 
spirit,  he  will  never  be  a  slave.  He  will  be  a 
free  man,  and  resist  tyranny  from  any  quarter. 
Mill  says,  "To  crush  individuality,  that  is  des- 
potism." The  gospel  magnifies  individuality. 
It  produces  great  self-governing  spirits.  It  is 
the  confession  of  a  French  statesman,  that  France 
has  exhausted  its  resources  in  making  great 
characters.  The  reason  given  is,  lack  of  a  high 
standard.  The  explanation  is  easy.  The  public- 
school  work  of  France  has  a  studied  negation  of 
Deity.  More  pages  of  French  literature  can  be 
read  without  coming  across  the  word  God  than 
in  the  pages  of  the  literature  of  any  other  people. 
The  spring  of  great  characters  in  Christian  his- 
tory is  the  God  idea.  No  really  great  soul  was 


Some  Industrial  Problems  139 

ever  irreverent.  The  God  idea  in  our  system 
and  man's  accountability  to  him  has  been  far- 
reaching  in  its  social  influence.  It  has  produced 
a  self-governing  mind.  Habitual  self-control  is 
the  essence  of  free  citizenship.  The  world  will 
advance  in  the  principles  of  self-government  as 
the  spirit  of  man  is  swayed  with  the  greatness  of 
its  companionship  with  God. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America 


AND  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  :  for  the  first 
heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away;  and  there  was 
no  more  sea.  And  I  John  saw  the  holy  city,  new  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of 
heaven  saying,  Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men, 
and  he  will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  people, 
and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God. 
And  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes;  and 
there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow,  nor  crying, 
neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  :  for  the  former  things 
are  passed  away.  And  he  that  sat  upon  the  throne  said, 
Behold,  I  make  all  things  new.  And  he  said  unto  me, 
Write:  for  these  words  are  true  and  faithful.  And  he  said 
unto  me,  It  is  done.  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end.  I  will  give  unto  him  that  is  athirst  of 
the  fountain  of  the  water  of  life  freely.  He  that  overcometh 
shall  inherit  all  things :  and  I  will  be  his  God,  and  he  shall 
be  my  son. — REV.  xxi,  1-7. 

142 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Future  of  Labor  in  America 

1.  £be  Hmerican  Spirit 

No  discussion  of  an  intelligent  character 
which  involves  man's  welfare  will  ever  lack  in- 
terest and  attractiveness  to  the  well-informed. 
Man  himself  is  the  hero  of  all  earthly  dramas. 
There  is  an  extra  quality  in  this  subject  to  Ameri- 
can readers,  because  we  are  all  American  citizens. 
Next  to  the  loyalty  of  devout  hearts  to  Jesus 
Christ,  is  loyalty  to  country.  The  two  are  never 
in  conflict,  because  they  support  each  other.  The 
spirit  of  patriotism  is  akin  to  the  spirit  of  wor- 
ship. 

There  are  American  customs  and  American 
ways  of  doing  things.  There  is  an  atmosphere 
of  American  thought  and  feeling.  The  American 
people  have  been  the  first  to  bring  self-govern- 
ment into  the  foreground.  For  that  reason 
America  has  been  a  center  of  interest  to  the 
world.  It  has  not  been  many  years  since  schol- 


144  Christ  in  the  Industries 

ars  of  the  older  Governments  across  the  Atlantic 
were  known  to  be  coming'  here  to  study  our  in- 
stitutions, to  see  in  what  our  weakness  consisted, 
and  where  we  would  break  down.  Our  problem 
had  such  new  and  distinct  features  in  it  that  the 
faith  of  the  empires  was  not  secured  for  it  until 
it  had  stood  the  strain  of  two  great  wars,  and  by 
these  conflicts  had  been  established  beyond  ques- 
tion. Other  people  now  who  have  faith  in  Amer- 
ica are  self-honored.  We  have  been  a  text-book 
to  Europe  to  furnish  them  features  in  civil  gov- 
ernment unlike  anything  they  have  found  else- 
where. With  the  beginning  of  our  national  life 
we  had  the  advantages  of  all  experience,  and  we 
have  been  in  a  position  to  appropriate  only  that 
which  had  adaptation  to  our  needs.  We  have 
been  able  to  begin  our  national  life  on  a  new 
territory,  separated  by  an  ocean  from  populations 
waterlogged  with  the  fragments  of  their  dead 
systems.  We  began  here  free  from  contact  with 
immobile  custom  and  national  complications,  and 
our  political  and  industrial  life  has  had  natural 
expansion.  To  build  on  the  ruins  of  dead  insti- 
tutions evidently  hinders  the  growth  of  repub- 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      145 

lies.  The  Western  Hemisphere  seems  to  have 
been  reserved  until  this  time  to  civilized  man. 
If  this  country  had  been  discovered  even  two 
hundred  years  before  it  was,  it  might  have  been 
settled  by  a  people  with  religious  and  social 
affinities  so  vastly  different  from  those  who  did 
settle  here,  that  the  American  Republic  might 
never  have  appeared. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  there  could  be 
anything-  distinctively  American  with  a  mass  of 
population  made  up  of  several  races,  and  nearly 
all  the  nations,  and  with  such  broad  territory  as 
already  to  produce  decided  provincialisms. 

With  a  mixed  population  and  a  large  terri- 
tory, the  American  spirit  yet  goes  through  every- 
thing. The  Americanizing  process  is  dominant. 
Evidently,  in  the  future,  all  intellectual  and  social 
leadership  will  be  incorporated  with  the  American 
temper. 

The  man  who  sends  out  a  cure-all  in  medicine 
is  a  charlatan.  A  swift  glance  at  the  defects  and 
wrongs  of  industrialism,  and  the  offering  of  a 
swiftly-conceived  specific,  is  about  equal  to  say- 
ing that  everybody  ought  to  be  good.  We  can 


146  Christ  in  the  Industries 

not  make  a  lot  of  abstract  propositions  stand  up 
with  any  sort  of  decorous  behavior  over  against 
the  facts  of  society.     The  careful  physician  only 
prescribes  after  a  careful  examination.    The  body 
industrial  is  a  living  organism,  with  complicated 
functions  and  with  frequent  diseases ;  and  a  care- 
ful investigation  of  special  facts  and  conditions 
precedes  everything  else.     There  are  also  first 
and  second  steps  in  the  application  of  social  reme- 
dies.   There  are  cases  where  the  finalities  of  heal- 
ing can  not  be  applied  at  once.    There  are  cures 
to  be  applied;  but  if  applied  at  the  wrong  time, 
they  may  cause  the  death  of  the  patient.     The 
wise  sociologist  will  not  insist  on  bringing  about 
immediately  all  needed  changes.     In  the  nature 
of  things,  that  is  not  attainable.     Among  those 
who  are  unwittingly  the  enemies  of  progress  may 
be  counted  the  enthusiasts  for  race  redemption, 
who  refuse  consideration  of  all  methods  except 
their  own  ideals.     It  is  an  element  of  strength 
rather  than  weakness  to  gain  an  end  by  tidbits, 
when  that  is  the  only  way  of  attaining  it. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      147 

2.  Bo  "QHc  Desire  Industrial  peace? 

What  avails  this  discussion  and  array  of  theory 
about  industrial  peace?  Do  we  want  such  a 
thing?  Do  we  want  the  ocean  always  to  be  calm? 
Would  not  a  perfectly  smooth  sea  mean  stag- 
nation? Do  we  want  the  storm-cloud  to  be 
driven  from  the  mountain?  Do  we  not  prefer 
its  alarum  with  its  majesty,  rather  than  the  death 
stillness  of  a  poisoned  sky?  Is  not  this  industrial 
war  an  incident  of  liberty?  Is  it  not  one  of  the 
attendants  of  progress? 

It  is  because  the  individual  is  unfettered;  it  is 
because  the  man  has  been  set  free  from  the  des- 
potisms that  belong  to  the  military  types  of  soci- 
ety, and  has  been  given  his  rights  of  free  action 
that  these  forms  of  strife  have  come  about. 
Strikes  and  labor  organizations  measure  the  high 
tides  of  industrial  movement.  This  strife,  like 
any  other  in  which  principle  is  involved,  will  have 
results  which  are  worth  all  they  cost. 

Discontent  among  workmen  is  caused  by  the 
sight  of  others  who  are  better  off,  and  by  the 
conditions  which  are  about  a  freeman  in  this 
country,  through  alertness  and  tact  to  reach  a 


148  Christ  in  the  Industries 

constantly  better  state.  These  workmen,  in  look- 
ing after  themselves,  are  putting  characteristic 
American  energy  into  it.  The  movement  is  not 
ominous,  as  our  war  with  Spain  is  not  ominous. 
These  men  ought  to  be  discontented  as  long  as 
they  face  some  of  the  exasperating  conditions 
of  the  present.  That  sort  of  discontent  keeps 
their  blood  up,  and  gives  them  the  purpose  to 
hold  each  new  point  of  advantage  as  fast  as  it  is 
gained.  The  stirring  labor  movements  of  the 
day,  and  the  interest  laborers  are  taking  in  their 
condition,  and  the  sympathy  that  has  been  awak- 
ened for  the  cause  of  labor,  are  all  favorable  con- 
ditions; though  they  have  not  brought  to  pass 
every  desirable  thing.  The  laborer  is  making 
headway.  There  was  a  time  when  he  was  a  slave. 
From  that  he  went  to  serfdom;  and  from  that  to 
freedom  with  poverty ;  and  from  these  to  the  pos- 
session of  economic  advantages  superior  to  any 
other  time.  All  of  this  means  that  the  age  is  not 
decadent.  It  means  a  future  greater  than  the 
past.  Grievous  as  are  some  evils,  and  difficult  as 
may  be  the  application  of  remedies,  and  hopeless 
as  may  be  the  cure  of  others  in  the  near  future, 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      149 

the  whole  ferment  is  a  prophecy  of  the  coming 
better  day  to  be  inaugurated.  But  that  new  day 
will  not  be  a  calm.  It  will  stand  for  a  higher  form 
of  conflict. 

Failures  of  social  experiment  and  of  industrial 
schemes  indulged  in  by  the  few,  are  constant 
object-lessons.  They  are  factors  in  the  educa- 
tional process.  Man  learns  the  art  of  self-govern- 
ment in  his  experiences,  and  he  is  constantly 
acquiring  more  ability  and  skill.  He  is  coming 
to  know  about  government.  He  sees  the  value 
and  sacredness  of  statecraft.  So,  as  he  becomes 
better  informed,  is  he  less  inclined  to  forsake  the 
social  institutions  which  have  come  about  by 
slow  degrees  of  growth  and  testing,  and  to  follow 
after  the  newest  thing  offered. 

All  things  will  not  be  done  in  a  day.  As  time 
goes  many  things  will  be  tried,  and  what  appears 
to  be  the  better  way  will  be  adopted.  This  is  the 
perpetual  process.  There  will  be  times  of  in- 
difference and  panic.  There  will  be  times  of 
fidgety  doubts  and  fears.  There  will  be  times 
when  the  good  and  the  bad  will  be  swept  away 
together.  An  occasional  mind  will  be  attracted 


150  Christ  in  the  Industries 

with  the  new  and  untried.  But  the  masses  may 
not  be  expected  to  go  suddenly  into  anything. 
It  would  be  impossible  to-day  to  convince  the 
majority  that  the  world  is  in  need  of  any  radically 
new  industrial  scheme.  The  body  of  the  people, 
who  are  most  deeply  affected  by  both  adverse  and 
favorable  industrial  states,  do  not  think  much 
about  it  in  a  reflective  way.  If  stirred,  they  may 
become  lawless;  but  they  seldom  enter  the  region 
of  dreams.  The  masses  of  the  people  invested 
with  power  mean  to  do  right.  The  will  of  the 
people  may  trample  on  personal  interests  now 
and  then,  but  its  intent  is  honest.  These  people 
will  never  put  any  industrial  theory  into  practice 
item  by  item.  Social  elements  among  them  may 
appear  to  be  acting  blindly  and  without  effect, 
but  ultimately  they  will  take  their  place  among 
the  clear  and  accepted  understandings.  Among 
the  masses  is  always  the  wisdom  that  comes  from 
experience,  and  that  is  of  a  practical  kind. 
Among  them,  also,  is  the  free  working  of  a 
healthful,  rational  faculty.  Among  them,  also, 
are  the  best  expressions  of  the  moral  forces. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      151 

These  together  may  be  depended  on  to  keep  civil- 
ization from  coming  to  an  end. 

We  need  not  expect  the  future  to  give  release 
from  social  conflict.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
progress  lies  in  the  equipoise  of  antagonisms. 
But  this  does  not  mean  that  we  shall  have  no  use 
for  the  Beatitudes.  It  still  holds  that  whatever 
can  be  done  to  soften  the  asperities  of  the  strife 
must  be  done.  We  may  not  stop  the  war,  but 
we  may  go  on  the  battle-field  with  a  Red  Cross 
commission.  We  may  hoist  a  flag  of  truce,  and 
carry  water  and  healings  for  the  wounded.  The 
warfare  we  are  having  shall  be  civilized,  and  not 
barbarous.  Opportunities  for  better  living  will 
be  increased,  common  righteousness  will  be  bet- 
ter guarded,  and  the  toiler  will  be  a  happier  man. 
In  the  changes  which  are  sure  to  come  about,  the 
wit  of  man,  as  in  the  past,  will  appear  to  have  but 
little  to  do  with  it. 

The  mysterious  laws  which  work  for  the  better 
ends  of  man's  associative  life  go  on  as  do  the  life 
forces  of  the  human  system,  while  we  wake  and 
while  we  sleep.  Through  it  all  we  see  a  restless 


152  Christ  in  the  Industries 

and  resistless  energy,  making  in  the  sum  total  of 
it  action  for  human  good. 

3.  private  property  a  permanence 

The  principle  and  practice  of  private  property 
is  in  the  world  to  stay.  This  can  be  depended 
on.  The  mine  and  the  thine  are  mental  voices 
almost  as  clear  as  the  ought  and  ought  not.  To 
do  away  with  this  principle,  the  whole  structure 
of  society  must  be  changed.  It  has  prevailed 
through  history,  except  among  a  few,  and  these 
have  not  made  deep  impression.  The  represent- 
ative workmen  of  this  country  have  never  been 
carried  away  to  any  large  extent  with  the  com- 
munity idea  of  property.  A  workman  of  laconic 
speech  on  that  subject  expresses  himself  as  fol- 
lows: "There  are  some  men  in  the  world  who 
would  persuade  us  that  the  inequality  of  wealth 
may  be  removed  by  anarchy  and  revolution,  by 
upsetting  the  farmer's  wagon,  and  having  a  gen- 
eral good  time  eating  his  watermelons.  They 
teach  us  a  doctrine  of  forcible  division  of  all 
things,  so  that  no  man's  share  of  gold,  or  silver, 
or  beef,  or  mutton,  or  cake  and  pie,  shall  be  more 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      153 

than  another.  It  never  was,  never  can,  and  never 
shall  be  done.  A  given  amount  of  investment 
or  of  work  has  its  legitimate  results.  We  may 
not  get  it  in  every  case,  but  when  we  do,  no  man 
has  a  right  to  the  eggs  so  long  as  we  own  the 
hens ;  or  the  crop,  so  long  as  we  paid  for  the  seed 
and  did  our  own  plowing.  What  we  want  is  not 
division,  but  a  system  of  co-operation  and  profit- 
sharing  that  is  distributive  without  being  unjust. 
Our  purpose  lies  along  the  line  of  hard  work, 
common  sense,  and  fair  play."  This  expresses 
the  sentiment  largely  of  the  solid  workmen  of 
America. 

There  are  those  who  dream  of  some  sort  of 
social  apparatus  put  into  action,  by  which  the 
good  things  of  the  earth  may  be  meted  out  to 
each  and  all  without  effort  or  care.  They  pro- 
pose to  do  away  with  all  the  manly  antagonisms 
which  call  out  and  develop  our  best  powers.  In 
these  troubled  social  conditions  about  us  is  more 
or  less  resistance  to  the  nature  of  things.  The 
prizes  of  life  can  not  be  distributed  evenly  to 
those  who  are  not  willing  to  make  heroic  effort. 
The  manly  man  who  makes  effort,  and  succeeds, 


154  Christ  in  the  Industries 

will  never  willingly  divide  with  the  man  who  does 
not  make  effort.  And  he  will  not  consent  to  the 
pooling  of  his  property  into  collective  capital; 
and  as  he  is  able  to  toil  and  strive  and  prosper 
under  the  healthful  stimulus  of  competition,  he 
is  likely  to  outwit  the  nerveless  failure  if  the  strife 
for  collective  capital  should  come  about. 

The  industrial  millennium  of  the  socialist,  who 
expects  the  Government  to  take  charge  of  every- 
thing, and  assume  the  role  of  a  parent  providing 
for  all  alike,  and  issuing  rations  periodically,  is 
so  far  distant  that  it  need  not  be  taken  into  the 
calculation  just  now.  If  Government  should  ever 
become  a  paternity,  the  very  ones  who  make 
effort  and  get  on  now,  would  in  all  probability 
have  charge  of  the  storehouses.  Then  those  who 
do  not  care  to  get  on  now,  because  of  the  cost  of 
it,  might  not  then  care  to  live.  What. we  mean  is 
this,  we  do  not  need  a  new  order  of  society.  This 
that  we  see  about  us  of  civil  law  and  social  cus- 
tom, has  come  up  through  the  crucible  of  the 
centuries.  All  the  joints  and  ligaments  of  this 
body  politic  have  been  tried.  Not  like  Jonah's 
gourd  have  they  come  up  to  wither  in  a  day. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      155 

Then,  also,  there  is  a  relation  between  effort 
and  result  in  labor,  which  can  not  be  extinguished 
without  sapping  the  energies  of  the  race.  A  con- 
dition that  puts  the  workman  on  his  mettle  to 
get  along  is  the  best  for  the  workman,  and  the 
best  for  his  children. '  That  each  man  should  in 
that  way  stand  related  to  the  whole  body,  will 
cause  the  defeat  of  a  workman  now  and  then; 
it  shows  an  occasional  man  thrown  under;  but  it 
means  a  virile  life  that  will  always  show  spirit 
when  challenged  for  bread,  or  place,  or  power. 

If  every  man  should  be  relieved  of  the  uncer- 
tainties which  demand  of  him  that  he  shall  be 
alert  to  be  successful,  it  will  soon  come  to  pass 
that  there  will  be  none  to  furnish  the  relief.  That 
sort  of  a  social  order  will  soon  breed  a  race  of 
weaklings. 

4.  ftbe  Becag  of  Competition 

In  a  natural  way,  the  whole  business  of  soci- 
ety is  co-operative.  All  its  parts  are  inter-related, 
and  mutually  dependent.  Man  is  a  being  with 
peculiar  capacity  for  acting  in  concert.  Man's 
associative  life  comes  out  of  his  being.  Isolation 


156  Christ  in  the  Industries 

is  destruction.  Here  we  are,  in  families,  in  neigh- 
borhoods, in  villages,  towns,  cities.  We  bury  our 
dead  together — and  hope  for  an  everlasting  fel- 
lowship. No  man  liveth  to  himself;  no  man  dieth 
to  himself.  Among  civilized  people  there  are 
vast  interests  in  which  they  unconsciously  act 
together  for  the  common  ends  of  society.  Con- 
sider the  individual  the  unit,  and  give  him  full 
liberty  under  the  rights  of  the  whole  body,  and 
we  still  have  a  co-operative  society.  But  that  is 
not  the  modern  meaning  of  the  word  co-oper- 
ation. It  has  been  supposed  that  this  first  idea 
of  co-operation  is  not  close  enough  for  the  pur- 
poses of  workmen.  It  has  appeared  as  a  matter 
of  experience  that  when  the  individual  is  left  to 
strive  for  himself,  there  will  arise  what  is  known 
as  competition.  Competition  is  the  life  of  trade, 
it  is  said;  but  the  death  of  the  traders.  Among 
sparse  populations,  where  natural  resources  are 
abundant  and  where  personal  needs  are  not  mul- 
tiplied to  the  delicacies  of  refined  living,  compe- 
tition is  a  healthful  stimulus.  But  when  popula- 
tions increase,  and  when  the  social  bond  becomes 
complex  by  the  intermingling  of  many  different 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      157 

interests,  competition,  unhindered,  sets  men  to 
eating  each  other  up.  Competition  will  drive 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  marts  of  trade,  and  send 
the  world  into  the  curves  toward  despair.  The 
course  of  competition  has  always  been  that  it  has 
become  so  intense  as  to  reach  the  state  of  a  life- 
and-death  struggle.  Business  men  see  this,  and 
fence  against  it.  Workmen  see  it,  and  all  trade 
unionism,  as  represented  by  combined  effort,  is 
an  attempt  to  escape  from  its  destructiveness. 
One  meaning  of  the  modern  monopoly  is  an 
attempt  to  escape  competition.  The  word  mo- 
nopoly has  an  ominous  and  unholy  sound  to  the 
average  American.  Now  a  monopoly  is  not  al- 
ways opposed  to  public  policy.  If  there  could  be 
protection  from  the  abuses  of  power  in  monopoly, 
it  would  be  a  better  form  of  the  activity  of  capital 
than  competition.  The  modern  trust  is  still  an- 
other form  of  combination.  The  idea  is  larger, 
and  the  word  itself  seems  to  carry  a  great  moral 
message  around  with  it,  as  if  it  were  saying,  "I 
am  a  trust,  and  therefore  I  can  be  trusted."  Its 
intention  is  to  get  the  advantages  of  a  monopoly 
without  its  odium. 


Christ  in  the  Industries 


Its  fundamental  objects,  as  a  role,  are  to  con- 
trol production  and  prices,  and  escape  compe- 
tition. But  all  of  this  is  in  the  interest  of  capital. 
Labor  may  complain  of  it,  and  rightfully;  but 
in  it  is  a  lesson  to  labor.  Labor  is  moving  behind 
just  now,  because  large  bodies  move  slowly.  But 
labor  is  gradually  coming  to  such  an  understand- 
ing with  itself  as  to  give  direction  to  its  aggre- 
gate energies,  and  apply  to  its  own  great  life  the 
principle  of  combination  and  division  of  labor, 
rather  than  that  of  present  conditions,  wherein 
a  dozen  men  are  in  mortal  strife  for  the  same  job 
of  work.  Labor  is  a  little  later  in  the  field.  It 
has  more  difficulty  in  handling  itself,  and  it  mani- 
fests now  and  then  some  undesirable  features; 
but  none  of  these  are  finalities.  They  are  tenta- 
tive, provisional  activities.  Labor  in  this  col- 
lective view  is  to  assume  higher  forms.  The  out- 
look is,  that  the  industrial  fife  of  this  country  will 
be  able,  sooner  or  later,  to  solve  the  problem  of 
bread,  so  that  the  struggle  will  not  be  one  of  life 
and  death,  but  one  of  wholesome  rivalry  for  bet- 
ter conditions. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      1 59 

5.  Cooperation 

From  almost  the  beginning  of  the  industrial 
order  of  society,  labor  has  been  experimenting 
in  the  direction  of  some  modification  of  the  pres- 
ent wage  system.  To  better  the  workman's  con- 
dition, to  enhance  his  life,  is  the  Christ  coming  to 
him.  What  forms  are  to  bring  him  the  best  food, 
the  best  house,  the  best  school,  the  best  church? 
What  will  help  him  to  complete  his  character 
and  destiny?  The  two  most  prominent  features 
now  up  for  practical  inquiry  are,  co-operation  and 
profit-sharing.  Labor  in  this  country  is  likely  to 
test  more  thoroughly  these  forms  of  activity  with 
capital.  Beyond  question,  the  co-operative  plan 
is  succeeding  in  many  places;  but  it  is  subject  at 
all  times  to  great  abuses,  which  appear  to  be  in- 
evitable. Yet  these  do  not  stand  in  the  way  of  its 
being  a  hopeful  effort  for  the  end  desired.  Its 
modifications  under  test,  and  with  time  to  elimi- 
nate defects,  will  probably  make  it  one  of  the 
permanent  industrial  forms  for  the  future. 
Among  the  English  the  principle  has  been  more 
successful  than  among  us.  Business  in  America 
is  yet  too  full  of  financial  plunging.  After  we 


160  Christ  in  the  Industries 

have  had  as  long  to  run  as  some  of  the  Old  World 
industries,  which  show  the  success  of  co-oper- 
ation, we  shall  doubtless  be  able  to  give  better 
account  of  the  plan. 

Co-operation  is  only  adapted  to  the  higher 
order  of  workmen,  and  to  a  sober  and  steady  race. 
The  weakness  of  co-operation  lies  in  the  prosy 
fact  that  a  hundred  minds  can  not  manage  a  busi- 
ness successfully.  It  is  an  unnatural  method  in 
the  administration  of  an  industrial  enterprise. 
This  stands  against  co-operation,  that  it  is  an 
attempt  to  work  the  theory  of  equality  of  ability 
in  a  matter  of  business.  It  is  a  sort  of  majority 
rule  in  business  methods.  It  is  not  ethically 
wrong  to  manage  a  business  by  a  show  of  hands ; 
but  it  is  practically  a  failure.  There  is  a  differ- 
ence in  business  ability  belonging  to  men  natur- 
ally, and  to  put  each  man  in  the  same  gradgrind 
is  to  wreck  the  industrial  world.  There  are  splen- 
did workmen  who  have  no  talent  whatever  to 
conduct  a  great  enterprise. 

Business  success  of  any  sort,  in  nearly  every 
case,  shows  the  clear  marks  of  having  been  run 
through  the  alembic  of  a  single  brain.  It  is  the 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      161 

despotism  of  a  single  mind.  Shrewd  business 
men  do  not  invest  where  a  hundred  minds  have 
equal  voice  in  an  enterprse,  and  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  it  is  not  good  business.  It  is 
usually  so  that  a  single  mind,  or  at  most  a  very 
few,  must  think  a  prosperous  business  through 
beforehand. 


6. 

Profit-sharing  is  the  division  of  profits,  after 
the  interest  on  capital  and  salary  and  wages 
have  been  paid.  Where  industrial  conditions  are 
such  as  to  hinder  the  free  and  healthful  working 
of  the  principle  of  wages  as  pay  for  labor,  we 
believe  this  is  the  most  satisfactory  way  of  re- 
munerating the  two  industrial  agents,  the  laborer 
and  the  capitalist.  It  has  also  advantages  by  way 
of  adjusting  the  relation  of  wage-earners  to  the 
employer.  It  brings  about  the  fellowship  and 
mutual  interest,  and  the  good-will  that  grows 
out  of  a  kind  of  partnership. 

The  system  has  some  favorable  features  all 
around,  and  it  is  coming  into  favor  more  and 
more  as  an  evolution  of  the  wage  system.  The 
ii 


1 62  Christ  in  the  Industries 

principle  of  profit-sharing  does  not  involve  the 
laborer's  right  to  that  which  he  produces,  or  to 
any  part  of  it  in  addition  to  his  wages.  Wages 
means  remuneration  for  labor;  and  if  that  ques- 
tion could  always  be  settled  satisfactorily,  there 
would  be  no  occasion  for  profit-sharing,  or  any 
other  modification  of  industrial  laws. 

If  A furnishes  the  material  for  a  pocket- 
knife,  and  B furnishes  the  labor  that  makes 

it,  the  knife  in  right  belongs  to  both.  But  it  is 
not  convenient  to  have  joint  ownership  in  such 

property.  The  common  thing  to  do  is  for  A 

to  pay  B for  his  work,  or  for  B to  pay 

A for  his  material,  so  that  one  may  be  sole 

owner  of  the  knife.  It  is  not  wise  for  a  husband 
and  wife  to  have  joint  ownership  in  a  pocket- 
knife.  It  is  a  source  of  family  brawls,  and  a  good 

deal  of  sharp  whittling.  A paying  B for 

his  work  is  what  is  known  as  wages,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  be  full  remuneration,  and  therefore  a  re- 
lease of  all  right  and  title  to  the  thing  made. 

In  a  case  of  twenty  carpenters  working  on  a 
house,  under  the  primary  economic  right  a  man 
has  to  the  product  of  his  own  labor,  each  car- 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      163 

penter  would  own  a  part  of  the  house.  But  such 
ownership  would  not  often  be  convenient,  so 
wages  have  been  instituted  as  an  equivalent  for 
the  thing  made. 

Profit-sharing,  therefore,  is  not  advocated 
under  the  principle  that  a  workman  has  anything 
in  his  work  after  he  receives  wages  for  it;  but  it 
does  mean  that  if  the  laborer  receives  a  share  of 
the  net  profits  of  the  business  to  which  he  is  at- 
tached, the  wages  he  receives  will  be  adjusted  to 
that  fact. 

This  arrangement  gives  the  laborer  self-inter- 
est in  his  work.  The  employer  also  has  an  extra 
guarantee  to  his  business  that  comes  of  such  in- 
terest. Profit-sharing  involves  also  the  induce- 
ment for  the  workman  to  know  something  of  the 
business,  and  he  is  by  that  fact  brought  to  a 
better  understanding  with  the  capitalist.  It  is  a 
mutual  helpfulness  born  of  mutual  interest,  and 
it  is  conducive  to  friendship  and  peace  and  pros- 
perity. 

An  objection  is  urged  against  profit-sharing, 
because  it  provides  for  sharing  in  profits,  and  not 
in  losses.  It  is  claimed  that  this  is  not  equitable. 


164  Christ  in  the  Industries 

What  arrangement  can  be  made  in  which  labor 
shall  have  profits,  and  not  take  losses?  Is  not 
profit-sharing,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  one- 
sided and  unfair? 

This  criticism  is  modified,  in  the  first  place,  by 
the  fact  that  no  safe  system  of  profit-sharing  gives 
the  workman  a  voice  in  the  management.  He 
can  prescribe  nothing  in  the  way  of  policy.  By 
extra  skill  and  diligence  in  his  work,  he  is  ex- 
pected to  increase  the  profits  of  the  business ;  and 
with  a  safe  business  management  very  much  lies 
in  this.  It  would  not  seem  just  for  him  to  share 
in  losses,  growing  out  of  the  state  of  trade  or  of 
the  management,  in  which  he  had  no  voice,  and 
when,  from  his  profit-sharing  interest,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  in  any  case  of  loss  he  has  contributed  to 
make  it  less  than  it  would  have  been  without  his 
personal  interest.  There  is  no  way  in  which  he 
could  do  other  than  make  less  the  loss,  except  by 
bad  workmanship,  and  in  that  case  he  ought  to 
be  dropped  from  the  partnership.  If  the  year's 
work  brings  no  net  profit,  the  employer  receives 
nothing,  and  the  workman  nothing  in  profits. 
In  this  case  the  capitalist  takes  the  actual  loss, 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      165 

and  the  workman  takes  the  loss  of  his  extra  dili- 
gence born  of  the  spirit  and  purpose  to  increase 
the  profits.  Both  are  losses.  Whether  they  are 
in  equity,  is  a  question  of  fact  as  to  the  case  in 
hand.  Loss  in  any  case  would  seem  to  belong 
to  the  commercial  department,  and  not  to  labor. 

If  it  be  thought  unjust  because  of  the  evident 
danger  to  wage-earners  if  they  should  stand 
under  losses  for  the  right  to  divide  profits,  it 
could  be  so,  and  in  most  establishments  of  this 
kind  it  is  so,  that  a  reserve  fund  is  constituted 
as  a  protection  against  years  of  loss. 

It  appears  also  in  most  establishments  that 
the  larger  share  of  the  profits  go  to  capital  as 
remuneration  for  the  greater  risk  taken  by  it. 
This  objection,  therefore,  is  not  as  strong  as  it 
appears  at  first  sight.  Hundreds  of  firms  are  now 
practicing  this  plan,  and  that  objection  must  have 
appeared  to  them  from  the  start.  It  has  evidently 
been  overcome  in  a  practical  way.  Those  who 
have  adopted  the  system,  and  have  wisely  con- 
ducted it,  bear  witness  that  it  pays,  in  the  part- 
nership feeling  which  it  puts  into  the  minds  of 
workmen.  The  partnership  idea  which  cultivates 


1 66  Christ  in  the  Industries 

a  candid  friendship  will  finally  settle  all  the  seri- 
ous difficulties  of  labor  and  capital.  Many  diffi- 
culties now  arise  because  there  is  such  great  room 
for  misunderstandings  and  estrangement.  War 
will  last  as  long  as  there  is  alienation. 

Profit-sharing  meets  with  favor  from  those 
who  are  averse  to  radical  measures  because  it  is 
conservative.  It  does  not  propose  revolution. 
It  keeps  inviolate  the  rights  of  property  and  con- 
tract. Its  greatest  proposal  is  to  strengthen  the 
wage  system  at  its  weakest  point,  and  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  both  parties  of  an  industrial  enter- 
prise. 

The  application  of  this  system  in  detail  and  in 
practice  is,  of  course,  like  all  others,  involved  in 
difficulties  which  grow  out  of  the  stubborn  facts 
of  human  nature;  and  these  facts  may  make  the 
plan  in  places  quite  impossible.  In  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  it  may  fail  with  certain  classes  of  work- 
men, and  that  it  would  be  difficult  of  application 
in  certain  kinds  of  business,  it  has  all  in  all  much 
of  the  practical  to  recommend  it.  It  is  a  simple 
evolution  of  the  wage  system. 

It  has  been  urged  as  an  objection,  that  in  the 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      167 

years  when  no  profits  were  realized,  workmen 
would  be  dissatisfied,  and  give  trouble  to  the 
management,  because  they  would  be  unable  to 
understand  the  reasons  for  no  dividend.  There 
is  but  one  answer  to  this.  The  test  cases  of 
which  we  have  knowledge  go  to  prove  that  work- 
men are  reasonable  in  most  cases.  A  few  years 
ago  the  flouring  mills  of  Minneapolis  disbursed 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  three 
years  in  profits  to  wage-earners.  Reverses  in  the 
milling  business  followed,  in  which  no  dividends 
were  declared.  The  workmen  were  satisfied. 

Profit-sharing  is  feasible  and  practical,  and  it 
is  not  in  the  least  visionary.  It  has  no  theory 
for  itself  or  for  the  world,  which  is  not  capable 
of  demonstration  in  practice.  It  is  also  the  least 
complicated  and  simplest  of  all  arrangements. 
The  reader  asks  what  this  has  to  do  with  the  gos- 
pel. The  answer  is,  If  this  question  is  settled, 
capitalists  and  laborers  will  sit  together  in  the 
pews;  if  it  is  not,  they  will  not,  and  then  Jesus 
Christ's  gospel  is  scandalized. 


1  68  Christ  in  the  Industries 


7.  Gbe  3Lea£>ers  of  tbe  IRew 

Our  country  is  well  prepared  for  bringing  the 
labor  life  of  the  world  to  its  greatest  perfection. 
It  has  a  large  and  diversified  territory  and  cli- 
mate. It  has  a  soil  for  nearly  all  products.  Our 
people  are  yet  strong  enough  to  throw  off  their 
social  destructives.  There  is  a  feeling  among  us 
that  the  common  man  must  not  be  hindered,  if  he 
makes  effort,  from  attaining  a  fair  share  of  the 
enjoyments  of  life.  It  is  highly  probable  that  we 
are  seeing  as  much  of  industrial  chaos  as  we  shall 
ever  see.  We  may  be  past  our  greatest  perplex- 
ities. The  true  democracy  of  the  future  will  be 
built  on  labor.  Whoever  shall  contribute  to  per- 
sonal or  public  need  in  any  way,  through  labor, 
shall  find  the  best  ministries  of  the  world  for  his 
use. 

Men  must  be  regarded  as  chief  over  money. 
Property  is  subordinate.  Capital  must  be  for 
use,  and  not  as  an  investment  of  power.  Men  are 
to  be  greater  than  things  from  now  on.  The 
common  man  is  to  be  the  leader  of  the  new  age. 
That  is  God's  thought  also,  for  he  has  made  more 
of  that  kind  than  of  any  other. 


The  Future  of  Labor  in  America      169 

The  common  man  does  not  ask  for  special  ad- 
vantages or  sympathy.  He  does  not  ask  that 
anybody  help  him  shoulder  his  way  through  the 
crowd.  He  asks  for  one  thing,  which  he  will  take 
sooner  or  later.  Victor  Hugo  had  the  idea  when 
he  made  his  plea  for  the  mob.  He  says:  "Sacri- 
fice to  the  mob ;  sacrifice  to  that  unfortunate,  dis- 
inherited, vanquished,  vagabond,  shoeless,  fam- 
ished, repudiated,  despairing,  mob.  Sacrifice  to 
it,  if  it  must  be ;  and  when  it  must  be,  thy  repose, 
thy  fortune,  thy  joy,  thy  country,  thy  liberty,  thy 
life.  The  mob  is  the  human  race  in  misery.  The 
mob  is  the  great  victim  of  darkness.  Sacrifice  to 
it  thy  gold,  and  thy  blood  which  is  greater  than 
thy  gold,  and  thy  thought  which  is  more  than 
thy  blood,  and  thy  love  which  is  more  than  thy 
thought.  Sacrifice  to  it  everything  but  Justice." 
The  new  gospel  of  liberty,  of  life,  of  bread,  is 
Justice. 

The  common  man  in  this  country  will  stand 
for  Justice. 

The  teeming  millions  of  Asia  to-day  are  cry- 
ing for  Justice. 


170  Christ  in  the  Industries 

The  hopeless  toiler  of  the  Nile  Valley  says, 
"Give  me  Justice." 

The  poor  peasant  of  Russia  says,  "Give  me 
Justice." 

Jesus  Christ  died  on  the  cross  for  Justice,  which 
is  the  highest  expression  of  God's  love. 


General  Index 


PAGE 

Achievement,  A  work-day        -         -         ...  29 

Asia,  society  stratified          ------  42 

Anglo-Saxon,  an  exterminator           -         ...  44 

and  original  European       .....  42 

and  the  Australian         .....  45 

and  the  South  African       .         ....  45 

and  the  American  Indians      ...         -  45 

and  the  Negro            ---...  45 

race  limits     .......  46 

Animalism,  in  man      -         -         -         -         -         -         51,   53 

Affections,  of  universal  application  65 
Ambition,  False           ......         -70 

Arthur,  William 82 

Ancient  world,  social  state  88 

Australians      __-.....  45 

American  socialism,  inceptive      -        ...     100,  103 

its  lasting  effects              .....  105 

first  flush  of  success           .....  105 

amiable  spirit        ------  105 

influence  of  great  names  on  101 

Agriculture     --------  119 

American  spirit            ._....-  143 

American  institutions       ._.---  144 

America,  advantages  for  laborers          ....  168 

171 


172  General  Index 

PAGE 
Bonaventura,  Cardinal     ______  29 

Bread,  a  definition       _______       36 

Bread,  The  battle  for       -        -         -         -         -  37,   53 

Brotherhood,  its  decay         ______       85 

Business,  Spiritualized     ------          86 

Brisbane,  Albert          _______     101 

Bible,  its  moral  code        -         -         -         -         -         -         134 

and  the  civil  law       -         -        -        -        -         -134 

and  the  Ten  Commandments          -  134 

Civilization,  Unrighteous    ------       41 

Cuba,  her  wrongs    -------  44 

Commercial  tyranny    -------46 

Combines,  Effects  of        ------          48 

Conscience,  Rivalry  of        -----          53,   54 

Christ,  in  the  strife  ______  56 

and  the  social  order  _____       79 

His  estimate  of  life        -----          84 

excluded  from  industrialism,  85 

and  social  obstructions  -  88,  89 

rebukes  hypocrites  -----       89 

the  Savior  of  society      -----  3 

passion  the        -         -         -         -         -         -         -125 

universality  of  idea        -         -         -         -         -         132 

The  spirit  of-         -        -        -        -        -        -151 

and  competition     -         -         -         -         -         -         157 

Capital,  and  labor       -------73 

its  danger      -------  74 

identified  with  labor  -----       77 

Home  »__-__.  76 

Charles  I,  his  efforts  at  reform     -         -        -        -        -       81 

Character,  arrested  -----  82,  83 

Common  man,  Interest  in  -        -         -         -       83,   168 


General  I  tide x  173 


PACE 

Common  man,  Justice  for     -         -         -         -         -  169 

Church,  social  specialization    -  87 

Early,  a  democracy  88 

Social  caste  in------  91 

and  the  labor  problem        ....  92 

Early,  socialistic    ------  109 

Early,  interpreted       -----  no 

Early,  accepts  private  property      -        -        -  no 

Communism,  in  France        -----  98 

Channing,  William  H.     ------  IOI 

Curtis,  George  William         -----  101 

Cities,  their  growth          -        -        -        -        -        -  122 

Causes  of          -------  121 

Increased  competition  in        -        -        -        -  122 

residence  for  agriculturists        -        -        -  -     123 

Christianity  applied         -        -        -        -        -        -  '28 

Competition,  Decay  of        -        -        -        -        -  -     '55 

Modern  meaning  of                 -         -         -         -  '5^ 

Healthful  '56 

its  success      -        -        -        -        -        -        -  '5^ 

among  the  English            -        -        -        -  -     '59 

among  higher  order  of  workmen    -        -        -  160 

its  weakness      ..-----  100 

Domestic  life,  False  ideas  about       -        -  69 
Democracy          -------- 

Differentiation,  Social      - 

Dana,  Charles  A. 

Dwight,  John  A. 

Equality,  The  new  age  of 
Edison,  his  helpers 
Europe,  Modern 


174  General  Index 

PAGE 

Egypt,  her  laborers  42 

Economy              ________  62 

Employer,  of  labor  75 
English  Colonial  system      -         -         -         -         -         -131 

Ethical  basis  of  modern  life     -         -         -         -         -  132 

Ethnic  faiths       ___-----  137 

Fowler,  Bishop         __-___-  31 

Force,  Supremacy  of            ------  39 

Financiering,  its  elements         _____  63 

Fourier,  Charles          _______  102 

his  social  philosophy      -  103 

Fourier  societies  in  America      -  105 

Food,  Organic,  social  meaning          -         -         -         -  121 

Farm  life,  its  advantages     -         -         -         -         -         -122 

France,             -         -         -         -         -         --         -  138 

Gibbon       .........  153 

Guilds 25 

Government,  its  weakness             _____  74 

Guizot,  and  human  progress    -         -         -         -           78,  133 

God,  Idea  of 133 

Gospel,  enthrones  fraternity    -----  86 

its  power           __-----  87 

not  coercive           -        -        -         -        -         -  128 

its  indirect  social  effects    -         -         -         -         -  127 

its  collective  influence  -  136 

Greeley,  Horace          _____--  101 

Hebrews  40 

Home         _____----  64 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel     ___-_-  101 

Human  nature,  asocial  guarantee        -         -         -         -  116 

Hugo,  Victor           ___----  169 


General  Index  175 


PACE 
Institutions,  produced  by  men     -         -         -         -         -       12 

Dependent  ......          20 

Industrial  war     ........       47 

Improvidence  _....__          62 

Indians       ------         ...45 

Industrial  peace       ..-.-.-         147 

Jacob  23 

Justice,  in  history    ..-----  41 

Labor,  of  value  to  the  spirit        -        -        -        -         16,  18 

essential  to  the  character        ....  14 

a  blessing  in  itself    -         -         -         -         -         -  '5 

its  eternal  consequences          ....  16 

its  social  products     -         -,-         -         -         -21 

its  equality  as  to  pursuits       ....  23 

some  friends  of  it               -        -        -        -        -  61 

organizations          ..-_--  69 
Definition  of-        -        -        -        -        -        -69 

a  possible  tyrant    ------  74 

Combinations  of        -         -         -         -         -         -  158 

and  democracy      ------  168 

advantages  for  in  America          ...         -  168 

Lavater,  his  endurance    ------ 

Life,  The  right  to 

Value  of  among  the  ancients  83 

Modern  estimate  of            ...        -        -  84 

Love,  Sexual 

Laborer,  his  desire      ------- 

his  wife 

his  choice  of  pursuits         - 

Better  conditions  for 

his  fame            -------  *3 


176  General  Index 

PAGE 

Laborer,  and  the  Church         _____  92 

his  discontent            _----_  148 

his  short-sightedness      _____  76 

put  on  his  mettle       ______  155 

Labor  Unions          _______  71 

afford  better  opportunities          -         -         -  71 

a  protection            ______  72 

spread  knowledge     ------  72 

not  against  capital  as  such     -  72 

Educational  work  of           _____  72 

the  community  feeling             _         _         _         _  73 

their  untenable  position    -----  75 

Lowell,  James  Russell     ______  101 

London,  socialist  society     -         -        -        -        -         -in 

its  manifesto          -         -         -        -        -        -  112 

Land  areas,  exhausted         -         -        -         -        -        -120 

Law,  Roman,  a  slow  deposit    -----  130 

Early  English  -------  135 

Literature,  French            ______  138 

Monuments,  represent  toil           -        -         -         -        -  12 

Man,  a  producer     -         _         -         -         -        -        -  21 

Muscular  skill     --------27 

Monopoly  ..____-  47,  157 

its  dangers  __-----  74 

Morals,  The  new  day  of  __...  51 

vital  to  society          ------  55 

Millennium,  what  produces  it           -  18 

Machinery,  its  power  of  production     -         -        -         -  121 

Moral  evil       ________  126 

Moral  law  in  the  statute      _-----  134 

Mind,  Self-governing  -  -  -  -  -  -  138 

Mill 138 

Masses,  Conservative  -  -  -  -  -  -  150 


General  Index  177 


PACK 

Northmen,  overran  Italy     -        -        - 

-       40 

Negro,  a  subordinate       - 

45 

New  Lanark  enterprise        ... 

-     104 

New  Harmony  enterprise 

104 

Nationalism        ..... 

-     114 

its  despotism 

115 

New  age,  The     -        -        .        -        - 

-     168 

Professions,  and  the  manual  trades 

26 

Pope  Gregory     -        -        -        -        - 

.       29 

Positions,  not  for  ease  lovers    - 

30 

Personal  liberty,  its  limits 

-      75 

Paul,  at  Athens       -        -        -        - 

86 

Popular  government,  conservative 

.       100 

Parker,  Theodore    - 

101 

Peabody,  Elizabeth  P.         -         -         - 

-       101 

Periodicals,  Socialistic     -        -        - 

101 

Paternity    ------ 

-   114,  154 

Personal  effort  essential 

115.  154 

Progress     ------ 

-   13* 

Preachers        -        -        -        -        - 

-        -        -        »35 

Patriotism            -         -         -         -         - 

-     143 

Providence,  in  discovery  of  America 

145. 

Population,  Mixed      .        -        -        - 

.   us 

Private  property      -         ... 

151 

Profit-sharing      - 

.    161 

its  theory  of  wages 

162 

its  advantages 

.    .    .  163 

objections  to  it      - 

.     .     .     164 

. 

.    166 

its  practicability    .        -        - 

.     .     -     167 

its  identity  with  toil 

37 

12 

178  General  Index 

PAGE 
Religion,  its  commercial  spirit     -----       38 

not  social  first        ------  80 

a  social  stay      -        -         -        -        -        -        -     127 

Russia     ---------          43 

Regeneration,  Social  -        -         -         -        -        -         -n 

Roman  policy          -        -        -         -        -         -         -         129 

Scott,  Walter      --------17 

Social  ethics    --------  50 

Spirituality          __--_--_       54 
Sorrow,  a  moral  defection         -----  54 

Song  of  Songs,  interpretation      -----       65 

Society,  A  life          «_.._.-  79 

Sin,  not  abstract          _.__-.-5 
Socialism,  a  feature  of  civilization  -  97 

Radical 98 

sympathy  for  the  masses        -  98 

Negative  -------98 

Policy  of-------          99 

its  rational  elements  -----      99 

its  American  features     -----         100 

its  weakness      -------     108 

commands  attention       -----         107 

its  rights  -------     107 

Christian  socialism         -         ...         109,   ill 
Social  movements  biological         -----     106 

Selfishness       --------         108 

Socialistic  propositions        -        -        -        -         -        -112 

Social  forms  of  slow  growth     -        -        -         -        -         116 

Schemes,  Revolutionary      -        -        -        -         -         -117 

Social  laws,  their  constant  movement       -         -        -         119 
Social  reform  slow       -         -         -         -         -         -         -126 

Social  defects,  how  cured        -        -         -         -        -         146 


General  Index  179 


PAG* 

Social  failures,  object  lessons       -         ....     149 

Society,  Co-operative       -         -         -         -         -         -         156 

Soil  products      -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -119 

Soil  ownership        -        -        -        -        -        -        -         123 

Slums,  not  subjects  of  industrialism     ....     124 

Moral  elevation     -         -        -        -        -        -         125 

The  gospel  and          -        -        -        -        -        -126 

Sense  of  the  Divine         -        -        -        -        -        -         128 

Self-control,  and  citizenship         .....     139 

Self-government       .------         143 

Strife,  the  attendant  of  progress  ...     147^  151 

Tribal  life,  Early     -        -        -        -  39 

Trusts 49,  157 

Thrift,  its  value       -- 6l 

Wesley,  his  influence          ......      87 

Whitefield,     ...  87 

Wright,  Fanny 1OI 


A     000  036  341     6 


I 


